


Six Thousand Years Ago

by JeckParadox



Series: Six Thousand Years Ago [1]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Gem Fusion, Gem War, Gem/Human Relationships (Steven Universe), Gen, Reincarnation, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-15
Updated: 2020-04-03
Packaged: 2020-10-06 02:22:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 23,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20499299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JeckParadox/pseuds/JeckParadox
Summary: Everything was fixed for the time being. Beach City was cleaned up again, despite the effects of Spinel's Injector. The Diamonds were happy with their new best friend, the Gem Colonies were beginning to live in harmony with their own planets by following in Little Homeworld's footsteps, and plans were even being made to begin terraforming the other planets in the solar system for Gem and even human habitation. The future looked bright. All the effects of the Gem War had been addressed and were improving.And then, of course, Steven finds himself right back in the thick of it. Waking up without explanation as a normal Rose Quartz soldier six thousand years in the past, Steven finds himself needing to stop the Gem War all over again. Hopefully, before it even begins.





	1. Chapter 1

He opened his eyes, and knew immediately that he felt... different. 

He looked down at his hand, and frowned, confused, that it was... peach. Not like his own skin, but an actual peach color. His hands glided off of each other, each impossibly smooth, and moving without the slightest bit of effort. 

He was a Gem. Or rather, a non-hybrid one. His first thought was that he was dreaming. He had experienced things from the point of view of Gems before while he was sleeping. Looking around, he took in the hole he was inside, and touched the sides. They were warm to the touch, the rock still slightly glowing with the heat. He took a few more steps, before reaching the edge of the hole, and looking out over the Kindergarten. 

"Wait, what?" he began, eyes zipping from place to place. It was the Kindergarten, for sure, but more than that, it was different. The cliff side opposite him should have been riddled with holes, instead, there were only a handful. That handful increased by one as he watched a bit of rock explode out of the way, clearing the way for an emerging newborn Amethyst. 

"Who's showing me this?" he asked loudly, looking upwards. There was no response, but he supposed there wouldn't be. Usually, when someone went out of their way to show him visions from the ancient past like this, it's because they wanted him to learn something. He took a few steps, and hopped out of his hole, activating his power-

And crashing to the ground in a heap. 

"Ugh." no floating powers? He supposed that made sense, this wasn't his body he was seeing through, right now. 

Speaking of, he should probably figure that out, shouldn't he?

"Hey, you took a big fall there, Quartz, you alright?" he saw a purple hand extended out to him, so he took it, letting the other Gem help him back to his feet. 

"I'm fine, I think." Steven answered, "Thanks!" he saw the Amethyst, one he didn't recognize, bend down to inspect his stomach, and tap lightly on his Gem. 

"No cracks. Should probably be fine." she looked back up, smiling, "Why'd you fall?"

"I was just surprised by how far I was from the ground, I guess. Didn't look down." Steven lied, "So, do you have any idea of where we're supposed to go from here?" 

"We're supposed to move out as soon as our units emerge, but there's a couple of late bloomers still." she looked up the cliff, "But in your case, you're an early bloomer, huh? I don't think this batch of Rose Quartzes were supposed to emerge for another couple days. The first of the batch. Lucky for you! Cut 7DT, right?" 

"If you say so." Steven said, nervous, before looking up at his hole, "There's no label or anything." 

"Don't you just know?" the Amethyst asked, frowning. 

"Is that... bad?" Steven asked. 

"I... don't know?" the Amethyst frowned. "What if you're in a group of other Rose Quartz, and your Agate wants just you to go off and handle something?"

"I guess she'll point." Steven said, "I'm 7DT, right?" 

"Right..." the Amethyst was watching him with a bit of suspicion, or hopefully just confusion, now. 

"Thanks for the help." Steven said hurriedly, "Ah, what was your Cut?" 

"Oh! 8WL!" she pointed off towards further into the valley, which Steven recognized as nearby where Amethyst, or rather, _his_ Amethyst, would eventually emerge. 

"Thanks 8WL, I'll be sure to remember it!" he wandered off pointedly, then, biting his lip. "Seven Dee Tee." he said to himself, "I should remember that. Or... maybe this dream or vision will end soon, and it won't matter. Or maybe it still will matter?" he shook his head, noticing, for the first time, the fluffy light pink hair drifting in front of his eyes. "Huh. Maybe I should get a good look at myself." He held out his arm, and created a shield, smiling at how easily it came. Although... it wasn't his normal shield. There wasn't a rose vine spiral pattern on it.

Oh well, just another thing to think about. 

He raised the shield to his face, and blinked in surprise at his reflection. It was him. But clearly different. A bit how he imagined himself as an adult, if a bit more... feminine. He was taller and broader than he had been, by a long shot. He dwarfed the fully-formed Amethysts, so he was probably as tall as his mom had been. Why would someone make a simulation like this? If the vision was passive, he should have just been, well, himself, watching things happen from an outside perspective, like what Pearl had shown him in her Gem. If it was more active, like his telepathic dreams, then he should just be in the body of whoever 7DT should be, and it shouldn't look like him at all!

It didn't make sense. 

Unless... he knew time travel existed- the word 'arrivederci' still made him shudder -but he didn't know it would turn him into some kind of Gem! In which case, was he actually in the past? Should he change anything? _Could_ he change anything? The movies on the subject tended to confuse themselves, and his own personal experience was limited to seeing alternate-reality clones of himself turning to dust. 

He wandered back to the wall he had come out of, and frowned. There were no Gem-holes in this one, beside his own. Did... whatever happened to him, make 7DT wake up earlier than she should have? 

He thought about how strange the situation was for a couple minutes, before looking in the direction of the Warp Pad as it lit up. 

Oh, and there was Mom and Pearl. Right on schedule. 

He watched, nearly dumbstruck, as his Mom and Pearl spoke briefly, jumped off the platform, and floated down to the ground. They land in the path of a freshly-made Amethyst charging past, and Mom is knocked to the ground, but his Mom didn't seem bothered by it, instead just continuing to gush to Pearl. Part of him wants to get closer, hear what they're saying. But he knows that could have disastrous consequences. 

This was six thousand years ago.

And it was probably real. 

What should he do with that information!? 

He continues watching, unsure, as his Mom turns towards his direction. He quickly ducks behind a rock, and lets out a breath of relief as she and Pearl pass him by, instead going over to talk to a group of gathered Amethysts. 

"Hello fellow Amethyst Guards! What are we all up to?"

"There's two more from our unit who haven't emerged yet. So we're gonna wait for em'."

Just then, the last Amethyst emerges from the wall. He knows _his_ Amethyst wouldn't be popping up for another... he didn't know how long. At least after the Crystal Gems win the war, and the Diamonds corrupt every Gem but Rose, Pearl, and Garnet in revenge.

"Here comes one of em'." 

"Oh wow, look at you. Welcome to Earth!" his mom gushes. He smiles. 

"That is the first and nicest thing anyone's ever said about me." 

Another Amethyst charged over, then, interrupting the moment, "What's going on here? Our orders were to move out as soon as you emerged!"

"But 8XM hasn't emerged yet." another said. 

"She can catch up with us later! Go! Go! Go!" the Amethysts began to storm off, before one of them stopped, looking back at Mom. 

Wait, that's 8WL. 

"Oh, hey, Rose Quartz, 7DT emerged already!" Uh oh. "She's over there, behind the rock." 8WL pointed towards him, and Steven realized that his head was sticking out.

"What about 'GO! GO! GO!' did you not understand!?" the Amethyst in charge shouted back at her. 

"Whoops. Sorry!" 8WL, having innocently wrecked the timeline, ran off with the others. 

His Mom was staring at him now, looking like a deer caught in headlights, and Steven had the exact same expression. 

"Uh... hey there! Fellow Rose Quartz!" his Mom said, shaking out of it first, approaching him, "Nice to meet you!" 

"Um, same here." Steven managed, looking between her and Pearl, who was beginning to look worried as well. 

Welp.


	2. Chapter 2

It was so bizarre, having her standing in front of him. Not an illusion made of cloud, not a video recording, not a dream or a memory seen through the eyes of someone else. 

She was alive, she was here. 

He had wanted to meet her for so long. And he wanted to be happy about that! But...

This wasn't how things were supposed to be. 

Not that he wanted to stick completely to history as it happened! He really, _really_ didn't think he'd be able to stand aside and watch as the Gem War unfolded just by telling himself that it'll go okay in the end. Not at all. 

But this- it was important that today happened, to his Mom, to the Earth, to everything. His Mom _had_ to learn to love the Earth. It was what _started_ everything else! 

"So... we just... wait?" his Mom asked, watching him with interest. 

"I guess so." Steven said, not wanting to meet his Mom's eyes. He had to think of something- but she'd be _suspicious_ if he just told her to go explore Earth, wouldn't she? And he was okay being suspicious, but her being more interested in _him_ right now wouldn't help the Earth!

...Not that he didn't deserve a _little_ time having his Mom's attention. He looked up to her, then, meeting her eyes. She stepped back at the emotion behind them, but didn't guess at what was happening in his mind, instead, she looked for a distraction. 

"Do you want to... _do_ something, while we wait?" she asked, hopeful, "We could... play? Roughhouse a bit, Quartzes like that, right?"

"Uh... probably?" Neither of them knew what they were supposed to be doing as Rose Quartzes. That made him feel a little better. "Made for fighting, and stuff like that." Jasper had said that once, right? And he knew that Amethyst loved to get her stress out through wrestling.

"Okay! Do you want to?" 

"Um, not right now." Steven said, "Honestly, it feels a bit rude. We don't even know each other yet." he held out his hand, "I'm Steven- I mean, Seven. Cut Seven. DT. Rose Quartz Facet-5 Cut-7DT!" he spilled out awkwardly, "It's good to meet you." Finally.

"I'm... Rose Quartz." she said, taking his hand. She opened her mouth to continue, but closed it, upon glancing at the wall he had emerged from. And his emergence hole, the only hole in it.

He squeezed her hand. It wasn't exactly like how he imagined it. But it was close. "Don't worry." he said, warmly, pulling her in suddenly for a hug. He had a lot of complicated feelings about the Gem in front of him, but this was something he had wanted for a long time, "I couldn't remember the complicated part of my name either, at first." 

Pearl had gone ramrod straight as he hugged Pink Diamond, about to chime in with a 'get off her' or maybe just 'how rude'. But she fought it back when his Mom hugged him right back, squeezing with strength that dwarfed a Quartz', carefully controlled so as to not poof him. 

"Welcome to Earth." he said. 

"Welcome to Earth." she replied back. 

Once they let each other go, he found he was smiling. 

As nice as it was to finally have the chance to hug his Mom, he still hadn't thought of a solution to the current problem. They were supposed to arrive, then Pearl was supposed to lead her away, and then they'd explore Earth, and hid Mom would realize how beautiful and precious all of the life was. 

Instead, Pearl looks like she's straining herself to not appear worried in the slightest, and doing a very bad job of it. 

How could he save this?

_Should_ he save this?

If his Mom didn't explore, and enjoy all the nature... would she just let the invasion of Earth happen as planned? Not form the Crystal Gems at all?

That would prevent the war, but it might end up killing Earth. He couldn't let that happen either. But how to bring it up? Was it important that _Pearl_ bring it up?

Actually... 

"Uh, hi!" he said to Pearl, "I didn't really introduce myself to you yet, did I? That was rude. What's your... designation?" hopefully that's the right word for it.

Pearl forced a grin, sweating nervously, "Why, I am... Pearl." 

"Just Pearl?" 

"We're made-to-order." she said, "So, no Facet or Cut, really." 

"I see." he didn't actually know that.

"If there's more than one Pearl in one place, you can usually identify them by who owns them." Pearl continued, switching slightly into her teacher tone, "For example, I am..." she halts, eyes shifting quickly to his Mom. "I, uh, that is to say..." 

"She's Pink Diamond's!" his Mom says, coming to the rescue. 

"Oh, that's interesting!" Steven says, rolling with it, he turned back to Peral, "She must be really impressive from up close, huh?" 

"She really is." Pearl says softly, before regarding him, "...I suppose you're wondering why I'm here." 

Uh oh. This could make or break it. 

"Actually..." if they revealed themselves now, Mom wouldn't be able to freely walk around Earth, would she? But would they even believe he wouldn't be curious if he said no? "A little? But I won't pry."

"Well... the reason is..." Pearl said haltingly, thinking, "Uh, Rose Quartz?" she said, addressing his Mom directly now.

"Yes Pearl?" 

"Weren't we about to... explore some of Earth's other features?" Pearl asked, before looking at Steven, "You see, I've been sent by Pink Diamond on a- a survey mission." 

_ Thank you Pearl! _He tried not to show his relief on his face. 

"A survey mission, exactly!" his Mom agreed. 

"I was to pick up a fresh guard from the Prime Kindergarten, for protection, and then we'd look around at the Kindergarten, and from there, we'd perform a quick survey of a number of other locations." Pearl continued, sounding a bit more confident with every word. 

"Oh! Well, go on ahead." Steven said, shoving his Mom in Pearl's direction, making the smaller Gem catch the larger, and blush a deep blue. "Wouldn't want to disappoint Pink Diamond!" 

"No, no we wouldn't." his Mom said, warm humor in her voice, "Let's go Pearl!" she turned around, nearly running, and Pearl followed. He barely caught "Pearl you're so smart!" before they managed to get out of earshot.

He sat down in the dirt, and let out a relieved sigh. The universe had saved him that time, but he didn't think he would stay that lucky. With this, hopefully, Pink would start wanting to save Earth, but that alone wouldn't solve things.

...Well, not in a way he could just stand aside and accept. 

He _could_ probably find a place to hide, wait six thousand years, until all his friends and family existed and were together. Heck, he could even wait until the new version of him solved everything. Wait until there was peace again, before revealing himself as an alternate universe Steven who came here just to enjoy it...

But that would be so selfish of him. Not when he could help. 

But he didn't know what could help. What _would_ help. Things had turned out... mostly alright, in the end. There was peace across space, the Diamonds were working together peacefully, and wouldn't colonize any more inhabited worlds. They healed all the Corrupted Gems, heck, they had even begun rebuilding their own family, with Spinel.

What if, by trying to solve problems before they happened, he made sure they couldn't be solved at all?

...

But he would have to try, wouldn't he? He wouldn't be able to just sit by as Homeworld shattered enough Crystal Gems to build the Cluster. He wouldn't let them suffer, broken and separated, for thousands of years until he convinced them to bubble themselves. He wouldn't be able to sit by as Lapis got trapped in the mirror again, or the Gems all became Corrupted, or let Bismuth get quietly disappeared by his Mom, or let Spinel just keep standing there, hour after hour, for the next six thousand years. 

For the next six thousand years, except for the very lucky and stealthy ones, every Gem that discovers fusion, or comes out of their hole with the wrong color, or a broken power, or even just displeases the Diamonds, will end up shattered, corrupted, or harvested. 

He wouldn't be able to just sit by and watch as the Gem War rumbles across the globe and the whole galaxy. 

All those lives lost.

He could make a change. He could make it better, now. It might cost the future he knew, but he might be able to make one that... while not _better,_ could be just as good.

He could make an effort, starting with tonight.

Standing up, more determined than ever, he smiled. 

Now that he knew what he had to do, all he had to do was figure out how. 

The Diamonds... were hard to reason with, even after he convinced them to try and become better people. They wouldn't listen to Pink, they wouldn't listen to their own subjects. Even if he convinced Yellow and Blue, White would just turn them all into puppets if she sensed too much defiance. 

But he doubted he'd be able to convince Blue and Yellow as he was. This time around... he wasn't Pink Diamond's son. He wasn't someone who could force them to confront their mistakes just by being who he was. He wouldn't have fifty centuries worth of regret on his side. He didn't have a human half that would protect him from things like destabilizers or help him to resist White Diamond's mind control. He would have to be more careful, approaching them this time around. He would have to fight against their stubbornness head-on. Without being able to appeal to the sense of family or obligation they still had. He would be one man against an entire civilization.

So... where to start?

* * *

He didn't have much time to think, as it turned out. 

A Gem approached him within an hour of his Mom and Pearl's disappearance, making a beeline for him. He stood up, then, and watched her.

"Rose Quartz, you emerged early." she said, sounding annoyed. 

"Uh, yes." 

The Gem was about as tall as him, and had a sunset-like complexion. Her skin was a warm pink color, while her eyes were a bright orange. Her hair, done up in a tight bun, was a pale orange color as well. 

"I'm Condor Agate. Your assigned commander. I wasn't supposed to have to come down to the kindergarten for another three days." 

"Oh, um, sorry about that." 

"Yes, well, these things happen I suppose. We can only hope it isn't a sign of any defects." she said, eyeing him up and down critically, "But we might as well try to make use of the situation. There's always someone asking for more support in one place or another, after all." she turned away, and started walking. When Steven didn't follow, she turned just enough that he could see her glare, "Hurry up, Quartz. Or is your defect that you _can't hear?_ I _said_ I could find a job for you." 

"Oh, uh, sorry. I'm coming!" he hurried over to her side, only to have her shove him back slightly, so he would be following from behind. Sighing silently, he followed her to the Warp Pad, getting pulled along through the familiar tunnel of light to wherever their destination was. 

He had to make some quick decisions, it seemed. 

Racking his brain, he considered the dates he knew. It was six thousand years ago that Pearl and Pink Diamond traveled earth and Pink realized that she didn't want to destroy the life native to the planet. That was... today. Five thousand seven hundred and fifty years ago was when Pink Diamond started using her Rose Quartz disguise to start a rebellion, wanting to scare the Gems away from Earth with her 'terrifying renegade Pearl' at her side. That's when Garnet formed. All the other Rose Quartzes besides Mom everywhere got bubbled, then, and ended up in storage at the Human Zoo... which didn't exist yet.

He gulped. That was his deadline, then, probably, if he didn't just _join_ the rebellion before then.

...If there _was_ going to still be a rebellion. 

Five thousand five hundred years ago the rebellion started in earnest, and that's when Bismuth joined, two hundred years later Bismuth made the Breaking Point and his Mom bubbled her. Five thousand years ago, his Mom faked her death as Pink Diamond, and lived as Rose Quartz 24/7 from then on. Five hundred years after that, Homeworld evacuates, and Corrupts every Gem on Earth...

When the Gems told him the stories, it all kind of seemed like it happened quickly. One thing after the other. One big discovery or battle to the next, and then it was all over. But it was_ fifteen hundred years. _

Steven wasn't even _twenty_ yet. 

That was kind of daunting. But also hopeful. He had ended the war and brought peace to the galaxy within his tiny lifetime. Maybe he could solve things that easily this time too. 

As the tunnel of light came to its conclusion, he looked around, taking in the familiar mountains spreading out in every direction. Some of which were floating. The largest one, some ways into the distance, was covered in scaffolding, but he recognized the positioning. The Sky Spire. Early in its development, he guessed.

"There's a good deal of native lifeforms in the area." Condor Agate said, stepping off the pad. Taking his own step off a moment later, he walked behind her, "To the point where their presence is interfering with the Bismuths' work. Your job, _of course_, is to act as a guard." she went up to the beginning of the stone staircase leading up into the floating mountains. She stared at Steven for a moment, before going _"Ahem._ Stand here." 

"Right!" he walked over to where she was pointing. She grabbed his arm, then, and turned him around, facing towards the Warp Pad, away from the mountains, and then spent a minute fussing over his position.

"Keep your legs closer together. Arms at your sides, no, not like that, okay that's better." she took a step back, then, and nodded to him. "This will be a temporary position, until the rest of your unit emerges. Don't allow any native lifeforms up those steps. _Got it?_"

"Uh, got it." 

"Good. Unless it's to keep a lifeform away, don't move from that spot." she ordered, before walking back to the Warp Pad and vanishing in another burst of light.

"I guess it would be pretty annoying if you were trying to build something and goats kept getting in the way." he said to himself, before relaxing into a more comfortable position. At least it was pretty here. And peaceful. 

Bismuth had said the spires were places for their thinkers to think, and that was exactly what he needed right now. Time to think. 

A few days without anything to worry about might help him figure out just _how_ exactly he should start making changes.

Of course, within an hour a man started walking out of the forest nearby. He was wearing little more than a loincloth, and carried a simple stone-headed spear. 

"Demons!" the man said, lowering his spear towards Steven, "You have gone _too_ far!" 

"Oh come on!" 


	3. Chapter 3

Steven sat down, "What went too far?" he asked, frowning. 

"You've wrecked the river for the last time!" he said, "All that mud, boulders, even trees- it's wrecking everything! We can't drink from it, the pigs can't drink from it, we don't know where it'll even be going, day-to-day. Not to mention _entire field_ got flooded when you demons changed its direction!" 

"Oh, I'm sorry." he said, "...I'm not sure what I can do to actually fix that, though." 

"Fix it- you're causing it!" 

"So you want us to stop?" 

"Yes!" 

"Well, I could probably do something about that!" 

The other man seemed to be caught off guard by that, frowning, "What?" 

"Look, just wait." Steven said, getting up, "I'll go talk to the Bismuths working at the top of these stairs, and see if I can get them to stop doing anything to the river." he frowned, "Actually, are you okay waiting for a few hours? I don't know how long something like this would take." he looked up at the stairs and winced, "Just the walk up will take a long time." 

"I've made the journey before." he said, "I know." 

"You have?"

"Me and the other men from the village have gone to battle the purple-skinned monsters before." the man said jabbing forwards with the spear, "But, well, they're strong. Some of the others have given up. Saying we should just move our village elsewhere. But not me!" 

"Oh! Well, uh, could you not do that any more?" 

"Why?" 

"I'm under orders to make sure no one goes up the stairs." Steven explained, "If you head up while I'm talking with them, I'll get in trouble with my superiors." 

"Superiors?" the man asked, frowning, "Stronger than you?" 

Steven nodded, "But I promise I'll try to be as quick as I can!" he said. 

"...I suppose I'll wait." the man said, "To be honest... I didn't actually think I'd be able to do anything." he looks at his spear, before holding it out to Steven, "Would this even puncture your skin?" 

"Um..." he took the weapon in his hand, looking at the shaped stone tied into place on the wooden pole with thin belts of leather. He ran a finger along the stone part, pressing his skin into it, before wincing as a tiny chip of stone was broken off the edge. "...Probably not, sorry." 

The man sighed, sinking to the mossy ground, "This was just as foolish as everyone said." he said, before looking up to Steven with a frown, "Why are you willing to help? I can't threaten you." 

"Sure you can!" he said, "I'm not supposed to let humans up the stairs, so that you won't get in the way of the Bismuths building stuff- not that humans are bad! It's just kind of unsafe for people to be running around a construction site, and you aren't as tough as Gems." Steven explained, "The only reason you want to go up is to fix things with the river, right? So by helping you, I'm helping my people too." 

"I... guess that makes sense." the human muttered. 

"Sure! Well, I'll be right back! Hopefully. If I'm _not_ back in a couple of hours, I'll definitely try and get back here by this time tomorrow."

"I'll be here." the man said, frowning, "What do I call you, demon?" 

"I'm not a demon. My name is Steven, and I'm a Gem." he pointed up the stairs, "The people up there aren't demons either, they're Gems too. What's your name?"

"Huang." he said.

* * *

If there was anything that he could really appreciate about a Gem body, opposed to his human one, was how much more it took to get _tired._ It was still possible to become exhausted, but it took a lot more to reach that point. Some Gems have apparently gone thousands and thousands of years without sleeping even once! It was amazing. 

Where he would have been huffing and puffing just ten minutes into the climb before, this time around he kept up his fast pace all the way until the steps started getting trickier. 

At least nothing was falling apart, this time around. The bridges were made of stone, rather than wood. The steps were perfectly carved and almost polished clean, rather than crumbling under his feet the way it was when he was a child. Areas that had been eaten away by a stream when he was a child were pristine and dry now, six thousand years prior. 

It still took him about an hour to climb the thing, but compared to the two or so hours the exhausting journey had been when he was younger and half-human, that was nothing. 

The actual spire was still very much under construction, as he could see from the bottom of the mountain. Much of the mountain was still in its original place, only the framework of the building that had coiled around the floating stone in place. 

He walked towards the construction site, and took notice of the Gems working there. Bismuths, of course. There were a dozen of them, working at various places along the building and on the mountain itself, their hands occasionally flashing as they shifted from fingers to tools, to different tools. But other than Bismuths, there were Amethysts as well, dozens of them, running from place to place and carting armfuls of rock from the top of the floating mountain, down the coiled building, and then off to the side of the cliff- and into the river flowing underneath it. 

Steven inched closer, leaning over the edge of one of the smaller floating hills leading up to the floating mountain of the spire, and looked down at said river. Already, it was a mess. Mounds of stone and hills of dirt clogged it up, shifting the direction of river through the forest, rather than along the pre-existing riverbed, which had been rendered into a slow-moving stream of mud. 

He could see the problem. 

"Hey!" one of the Amethysts turned away from her line, walking over with her armful of rocks, and let them drop at the edge, sending them into the pile below, "You here to help out?"

"Um, kind of!" Steven shouted back, "I'm here to guard the stairs and make sure no more humans come up here."

"Aw well. It was kind of fun getting breaks from carrying rocks to chase them down the mountain." the Amethyst said, frowning, "Thanks for that!" she turned around, to head back up the mountain and grab more rock, when Steven caught her attention again.

"Wait, before you go, why are you just dropping the stones straight down?" 

"Where else would we drop them?" the Amethyst asked, annoyed. 

"It's just that the rocks are messing up the river, that's why the humans keep coming up." 

"Oh." the Amethyst said, her expression not really shifting, "Neat. I'll be sure to keep doing that, then. Bye!" 

He sighed, watching her march off, before walking the rest of the way up the path, until he was among the other Gems working on building the spire as well. He stepped aside out of the way of lines of Amethyst marching up and down the rooms, heading up with their arms free, and going back down with their arms full of earth. 

When he came under a spot of the building that was filled with a pounding sound, he leaned over and looked out the window to see the Bismuth working on roof. 

"Hey there!" 

The Bismuth wasn't the one he knew from the Crystal Gems. She was somehow even taller, to the point of being lanky. Where his Bismuth's Gem was an innie, this one was an outie, with her Gem sticking out of the top of her head like a rainbow-colored pyramid, a mop of long, curly rainbow colored hair spilling out in every direction from it. 

She looked his way, and gave a bright grin, "Hey there!" she shot right back, "What do you need?" 

"Ah, I was just kind of wondering who was in charge here." 

"Hm... well, that'd be Serpentinite Facet-FL38 Cabochon-11SA." the Bismuth replied, "But she ain't planet-side at the moment." 

"Oh. Well, my Agate put me at the bottom of the stairs here, to make sure that no native lifeforms come up here and interfere." 

She nodded, "Good thing too! They were coming every few days, making noise, waving their sticks around, getting underfoot."

"Did you kill any of them?" 

"Well, I didn't of course!" the Bismuth said, "I'm just a builder. Not a soldier. The Amethysts got rowdy, though. I don't know if any of the organics died." she blew some of the hair out of her eyes to show Steven she was rolling them, "Probably not, though, the Amethysts all _loved_ it when it happened. It gave them a chance to play around, yell, move a little. You know, stop marching up and down carrying rock. And they milked it. Every time a human made it up here, chaos would break out, Amethysts just dropping their loads right on the steps, spin-dashing across fresh scaffolding, setting us back by _hours_ every single time." 

"About that... aren't they soldiers?" Steven asked, "Why are they _carrying rocks_ up and down?" 

"Yeah, ideally, we'd have a few Titanite around for that, or a Desert Glass, if this were a _real_ big project." the Bismuth said, before walking over to the edge of the roof , and swinging herself inside the window to stand next to him, "But this colony ain't even a century old yet. More than that, it's our Diamond's _first_ colony. The earliest injectors we put in the ground have only really started popping out Gems a few months ago. Without other colonies to supply Gems to help in the start-up, all we have is what few of us have already emerged, and a skeleton crew of upper-crust Gems donated by the other three Diamonds. Well, mainly from Blue and Yellow Diamond's Courts. For now, anything that needs muscle, Pink Diamond's been sending Amethysts to do it until we start getting more specialized Gems being made here." 

"Were _you_ made here?" Steven asked, interested. 

She nodded, "Bismuth Facet-5 Cut-2PY, nice to meet you." she laughed.

"You can call me Steven." Steven said, holding out his hand. The taller Gem took it, shaking, before raising an eyebrow, "Oh, um, Rose Quartz, Facet-5 Cut-7DT. Steven is like, 'seven' but with a 'T' in it."

"Fun. Ooh! Do me." 

Steven considered her for a moment, looking her up and down, and settling on her head, "Pyramid." 

"I like it." she said, tapping the little prism on her head, "Well, it was nice to meet you, Steven, but I should get back to work." 

"Wait!" he said suddenly, "Um, I emerged early, so my Agate just put me here temporarily." 

"Okay?"

"So, I want to figure out a way to get the humans to stop arriving and, uh, 'causing' all that chaos, so that they won't come up even after I get sent somewhere else." 

Pyramid went a little pale, "Well, uh, if you mean getting together a gang of Amethysts and just... destroying their nest, I'm... not really interested in the details." 

"No, no, not violently!" Steven said, "I talked to one of them, and he said the reason they were coming up in the first place was that the river got messed up."

"The river?" 

Steven leaned out the window, pointing straight down, "You've been dumping all the rock you break off the mountain down there, right?" Pyramid nodded, and Steven continued, "Well, they use that river to clean themselves in, and they drink from it, and they use the water to help their plants grow."

"Okaaaay?" Pyramid asked, not following. 

"But all the rock has changed the flow of the river, and made it dirty." Steven said, "If you can find somewhere else to put the dirt, the humans won't have a reason to come up again!"

"But isn't the river already changed?" Pyramid asked.

"Well, I was thinking I could clear the pile that's already there."

"...All by yourself?" Pyramid asked.

"Well, everyone else already has a job. I'm probably already making things complicated by asking you to find somewhere else to dump the rock." he said, "So... yeah, I was gonna clear the stuff already there myself."

Pyramid frowned, thinking, "...Nah."

"No?"

She shook her head, "Come on, follow me to the top." she began walking up the hall, dodging the next group of Amethysts heading down, and Steven followed at her heels. 

As they came out at the top, Pyramid lifted her hand to her mouth, and transformed it into a huge whistle. She blew into it harshly, letting out a sound that was ear-splitting, and caused all activity everywhere on the floating mountain to halt. 

"Everybody!" Pyramid shouted into the sudden silence, "This Rose Quartz here found out how to get the organic attacks to stop!" 

Suddenly, there were a lot of eyes on him. He grinned, "Sorry to interrupt your work, but I think it'll probably save time in the long-run!" he promised, "So, this is my plan:"

* * *

Huang tapped his foot nervously as he waited. The sun had gotten a bit lower in the sky, but it hadn't been... too long. If he had gone up by himself, he would have only just reached the top. But the friendly demon- the Gem, was stronger, taller, and faster. He was sure that the Gem could have reached the top much quicker than he had. 

He looked again at his spear, and the chip the Gem had made in the blade with his fingers. 

Was this foolish? None of the other men had even agreed to come with him, today. 

The last time had been a disaster, a terrifying one. They had spent hours climbing the treacherous heights of the stairway- although only portions of it could be called that. Other parts were practically just walls with grooves in them, and others were long and flat paths, all of it made of otherworldly flat stone. 

He walked up to the gate to the stairway, and reached out to touch it, only holding back remembering his promise with Steven. The Gem had told him not to go up, and he would solve their problems. Stop the destruction of the river. Potentially save their village. 

He supposed that was the power of Demons. Or Gems. 

He touched the stone. 

It wasn't like what he used for his spear. This was something like he had never touched before, a blue-gray smooth stone that wasn't found anywhere in these mountains. 

As he heard the sounds of movement and speaking from above him, further along the stairwell, Huang quickly backed up from the gateway. He gripped his spear, wary of betrayal. It wasn't a word he was used to considering in relations to the Demons. When they had gone up, the purple-skinned monsters had behaved like beasts, whooping and laughing, tossing men back and forth between them like children passing a toy between them. 

They fled, hurrying back down the treacherous steps, as they had each time before. 

And each time they worked up the fury to try again, less men were with them, until it was only Huang. 

He stood his ground as the Gems descended, led by Steven, the first Gem to actually show themselves capable of speech. Behind him were the purple-skinned demons, laughing and chattering, shoving each other and generally behaving like cocky young teenagers. But among the group were the rainbow-haired ones that had not deigned to joining in the fun of the purple ones. 

He looked nervously at the small army that assembled itself at the bottom of the steps. There was at least one Gem for every human in the village, if not more. And it would probably only take one Gem to destroy his village in its entirety. 

"Hey! Sorry for the long wait!" Steven said cheerfully, "Everyone, this is Huang, one of the humans from the village!" 

"Oh! Oh! Dibs!" one of the purple-skins shouted, reaching to the crystal embedded in her chin and pulling free a jagged knife made of a similar purple crystal. 

Huang lifted his spear, only for Steven to put his hand over the knife and force the smaller purple Gem to lower the weapon, "We're not here to fight. Remember?" 

"Ugh." the purple-skin dropped the knife, and it turned to light, vanishing. 

More magic. 

"We're here to help!" he said, "Could you lead us to the village?" 

"...Why?" 

"We're going to clear up the damage!" he said, smiling, "You said some of it had drifted downstream and got in the way. Even if we clear up the big piles under the Spire, it won't help you if your part of the river is still blocked. So we'll work our way up to it!" 

Lead them to his home?

He looked over the army of inhuman things, all of them almost twice his height or more. All of them with skin hard enough to deflect stone spears and axes, all of them strong enough to toss aside a man with one hand.

He eyed Steven, distrusting, and Steven's smile became a bit more understanding, "No, no, I get it. It's probably a lot to take in all at once, considering everything that happened, huh?"

"A... bit."

"Then we'll just have to work on the pile under the mountain first!" he said, "Come on everyone!" he continued down the hill, towards the village, but rather than pushing through the forest, he instead began descending in the other direction, towards the closest bit of river. 

Huang watched as the procession of monsters followed the pink-haired one, grumbling, down the hill. 

As they passed, some of them watched him with interest, some with giggles, some with curiosity, a few with looks of anger. 

And then they were gone, the entire procession making its way to the river. 

He followed.

* * *

The work wasn't too much worse than what the Amethysts had been doing before, Pyramid thought. 

Although, it was a bit different now that she and some of the other Bismuths were working too. Not all of them had agreed- in fact, a good half stayed behind to work on the Spire, thinking that this was all a waste of time. They weren't built for moving rubble. They were built for _producing_ rubble, if anything. Turning mountains into towers, chipping away at everything but what they wanted, and then building around that core. 

But Steven has asked for help, from her, specifically, and anyone else she could get to help. Not just Amethysts. Anyone. 

Her hands became shovels, and she began to hack away at the giant hills of mud that they had produced. 

The Amethysts around her helped with their bare hands, mostly, although a few with sort-of suitable weapons turned them to new uses. Axes and wide-headed spears weren't _too_ different from shovels. And even clubs and whips could be used to break rock and pull away chunks. 

But all the same, this was a novel experience. 

She looked over to the side, at the strange Gem that had started it all, and grinned to see her- no, 'him', Steven had corrected her, -clearing rubble away alongside the other Quartzes. Using her shield as a multipurpose tool, jamming it into the piles to dislodge mud, and then flipping it over and using it as a giant bowl to carry away a huge amount of mud at once, rather than going by armfuls like the Amethysts.

Looking away from Steven as he carried the bowl of mud away, she instead focused her attention on the human, watching them from above. 

He was sitting on a boulder, looking over the valley the river had been carving for millennia before Gems arrived on Earth, and observing their work. 

She couldn't exactly read the expression on his face, but she could tell he was thinking hard about something. And wasn't that a surprise. She had never really thought of organics as things that could 'think' before. It was almost bizarre how many similarities between humans and Gems there were. Bipedal forms, vision spheres and scent sponges embedded in their faces, hair on the top of their heads, four limbs, five touch-stumps on the end of each. Butts. Practically a mirror image, for the majority of Gems. Not as much variation in size or color, though. 

As she watched, she frowned when Huang got up from his perch and began climbing back up the hill, no longer watching them. Guess he got bored. 

She continued to work for another few hours, when a few Gems stopped working and started pointing towards the entrance to the valley. 

She turned and stared, as more humans began to make their way towards them, carrying sticks and baskets and boards and rocks. 

Pyramid stopped her work and headed over to Steven, "I thought you said doing this was going to make them _stop_ attacking us." she asked, putting her hands on her hips. 

Steven was smiling, "No, no, look at what they're carrying! They're here to help." 

"Help?"

"Yeah!" he said, dispersing his shield and hurrying down to meet the group, chattering greetings as he went. Pyramid watched, bemused, as Steven made conversation for a few minutes, before pointing out various areas. Humans peeled off from the group, and began wading through the river, and then climbing the hills where the Gems were working, and began to act as support. They drove rocks into the piles, breaking them apart. Jammed sticks into the holes they made, and put leverage on it. Entire slabs slid off, and were caught by Amethysts to cart off all at once. 

The humans really were helping. 

Eventually, some of the humans began to sing, the others, all familiar with the tune, began to sing along. It took only until the first refrain for Steven to begin singing along as well, and a few more for the Amethysts to start joining in. 

* * *

Work continued into the night, and into the next morning, and while many of the humans had gone off to rest, their feeble organic bodies requiring rest and sustenance after such hard labor, some pushed on, continuing to work until the job was done. 

Steven began to wander around the riverbanks- calling together humans and Gems alike, to gather on one side, where most of the humans were resting. 

Pyramid went over to join them, sitting down on a boulder to look over their handiwork. The river was running strong and clear, now, and the water that had been diverted to the sides seemed to drain back into the riverbed proper. 

It wasn't like anything she had ever built before. 

But it was still kinda beautiful, in a weird way. It wasn't like Gems couldn't appreciate the inherent beauty of flowing water, but a snakelike, utterly unplanned, somewhat unpredictable river like this shouldn't have appealed to her senses the way it did. The moss and trees growing alongside it should have felt like nuisances that had to be cleared away. They weren't clean. They would change in appearance and size year by year. The fish that swam along it should have been considered an infestation that broke the lovely monotony of the flowing water. 

But instead, they all looked like they fit. 

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Steven asked, coming over and voicing her unsaid thoughts. 

"It really _shouldn't_ be, but... yeah." Pyramid admitted. 

"Earth is a beautiful planet, isn't it?" Steven said wistfully, before handing her something. 

"Hm? What's this?" 

"Try it. the villagers are handing them out, to thank everybody."

"Thank us for what?" Pyramid asked, "We caused the problem." 

"But you could have just ignored them." Steven said, "Instead, you decided to do better, go out of your way to help them. You worked hard, right by their sides." he pressed the strange thing into her hand, "So they're saying thank you."

She turned it around in her hands, confused as to the purpose of it. "Is this ceremonial, or something?"

"No, no, you-" he rolled his eyes, "Never mind, just watch." he took a bite down on the object, the hard millet bread splintering and breaking off in crumbs as he chewed. 

"What are you doing?" Pyramid asked. 

"Eating." Steven said between mouthfuls, "It's not much for taste, but it's the first meal I've had since emerging, and I can appreciate the love that went into it." 

"But, you're a Gem." 

"Mmhmm."

"We don't need to eat."

"Nobody says we can't."

He swallowed. 

"...Did you shapeshift a stomach?" she asked, incredulous. 

"Yep." 

She shook her head, amused. So much effort with no purpose.

She nibbled on her own.

* * *

This had gone better than he expected, but he didn't really know why he was surprised. In his experience, any Gem that really tried to understand humans, actually gave them a chance, any Gem that actually sees them in action and doesn't look down at them but actually _at_ them... they realize that humans aren't animals. That they aren't pests, or monsters, or simply part of the background. 

They're people. 

Just like Gems. 

Some Gems he had never really gotten through to, despite all the time he spent trying. The Diamonds, for all they loved him after they accepted that he wasn't his Mom, still weren't there yet. 

Honestly, they were still having trouble considering other Gems people when he left. But they were trying. 

But here, he knew he had gotten through to the Gems working on the Sky Spire. 

As the party wound down, tired humans began making their way up the hill, and Steven went with them, carrying a few people who had fallen asleep right there on the riverbank. 

Pyramid and a few other Gems went with him to the village, and Huang, the brave human that had kicked all this off, tiredly began bragging about their humble village. 

It didn't have houses so much as permanent tents. Canvas made out of hides draped across wooden supports and walls. There was a somewhat soggy field where the millet for the crunchy bread had been grown, and further up the hill, he could see sleeping goats. 

There were only a dozen dwellings or so, the village having less than a hundred people. 

He really was in the past, wasn't he? With the Kindergarten- it hardly looked any different, six thousand years from now. Just full of more holes. With the Sky Spire, it was so different he couldn't really feel the dissonance. Without the nature taking over everything, without the wear and tear, only half-finished, it looks like a completely different place, only recognizable by the distinctiveness of being a floating mountain, and by the context of the mountains behind it. 

But this place was such a far cry from any piece of human civilization he had ever seen. No plastic, no glass, no furniture. Wood, animal hides, bone, clay, and rock, or some combination of it, made up _everything_ they owned. 

They didn't even have metal. Humans hadn't really discovered it yet. 

They wore minimal clothing. Their arms were thick and strong from constant work, and their hands and feet were covered in thousands of tiny scars. Their hair had never touched shampoo, their teeth had never touched toothpaste. 

The oldest person in the village looked like he was forty, maybe, at the latest.

It was a far, far, cry from what they would become. He could practically feel the sheer potential of the human species radiating off of them.

A small part of him realized that he would watch it happen. He was immortal, or close to it, now. Just like the Crystal Gems. That thought radiated through him as he walked and talked with the prehistoric people. He would be able to see it all, and learn, and help, and get to know them through the next six thousand years. He would be able to watch as they went from using millet-crushing rocks to make flavorless bread, to using metal machines to make ice cream. 

If he wasn't shattered or bubbled before then, for going against the Diamonds. If he survived or stopped the Gem War. If he avoided or stopped the Corruption from happening. If humanity wasn't rendered extinct by the colony.

Huang seemed to notice his change in moods, from filled with cheerful energy to being somewhat somber, and excused himself for the night, to go and sleep. 

Steven returned with the other Gems to the Sky Spire, where, not needing and not expected to sleep, they returned to their old jobs. 

The Amethysts were excited, at least. Rather than lugging the rocks to the edge and dropping them, they were now expected to throw the rocks towards one of the nearby mountain peaks. A deserted mountain out of the way of the river. It was more interesting, and could be turned into a competition, which made it into an instant improvement for the Amethysts. 

Steven waved goodbye to Pyramid and the others as they ascended upwards, and he was left at the entryway to the stairs, to go back to standing guard. 

He had his time to think now, not that he minded the distraction of the river. There was _always_ time to help. 

But he still had a lot to think about.


	4. Chapter 4

While he probably could have covered the entirety of yesterday's events within the wiggle room of 'don't move unless it's to stop the humans from going up the mountain', he was pretty sure what he was doing now _was_ directly against orders. He had left his post again, making the climb down from the mountain with the warp pad back to the village deep in the valleys.

His goal was both to check on everyone- make sure nobody was injured from the hard work of the previous day, although he was... pretty sure he didn't have healing spit any more -and to get a few items he didn't think anyone at the Spire would have. Items that no human settlement was without!

_"...Pay-per?"_

"You know, paper! Something to write on?" 

_"Right?"_

Steven frowned, "Um... Draw?" 

"Oh!" Huang nodded at that, "Tai actually is whipping up a pretty good variation of colors, to make a painting to remember last night by. I'm sure she could spare some if you hung around and acted as his inspiration for a while." 

"Oh! That'd be great!" Steven said, grinning, before stopping himself, "No, no, no sidetracks. Sorry, Huang, maybe some other time." 

"Why do you need paint, anyway?" 

"Sometimes, when I'm trying to figure out something big, it helps to put my thoughts down physically. Drawing what I'm thinking about. Making models. You know, something you can _hold,_ to try and get a new perspective on the situation." 

Huang simply nodded along, but not really understanding, "What are you... thinking about, that is so big that you need to get it out of your head and on a wall?" 

"Well, the Gems are going to have a war." Steven said, "Over what to do with the Earth. One group wants to protect all the plants and animals and nature growing here, and humans too, while the others want to convert it all into 'useful' stuff. Kindergartens, giant buildings, spires, like this one. And get rid of all the life that was already there. The war ends up being long, and horrible, and I want to find some way of stopping the fighting without endangering the Earth and humanity." 

Huang stared at him, horrified. 

"Uh, none of that stuff will happen within your lifetime, though!" Steven said, holding up his arms placatingly, "The very first bits of actual fighting won't even start happening for another... " some quick mental math "...seven hundred and fifty years! Unless I change the way things are supposed to go, in which case, it might not happen at all!" 

Huang's expression didn't really change, "Then, my descendants... would have to face such a terrible event?" 

"Er, not if I can stop it before then." he said, "Look, just don't worry about it." 

"How can I not- ugh." he shook his head, "I don't even know _how_ to leave a message that will still be here in seven hundred years. Should we just... not tell them?" 

"Since it might not happen?" Steven asked, "Yeah. I think it would let them rest easier then." 

Huang shook his head. "Well, if getting you paint will help you avert this, then I'll get you paint." 

"Thanks. I'd appreciate it." 

* * *

The doodles on the side of the rock-face about halfway up the mountain were fun to make, but he wasn't quite sure how much of a better idea he had of the situation, or what moves to make first. 

The truth was, he didn't have nearly enough information about the situation to actually... _make_ any changes. Despite coming from the future, he didn't have any knowledge that was key to the Gem War, or at least not any knowledge that he could _use_ any time in the next hundred years, and even then, he wasn't sure that it would _help_ him to spread it around. Namely, that his Mom was Rose Quartz. 

He had briefly entertained the thought that if the Diamonds found out Rose Quartz and Pink Diamond were the same person, it might shock them out of changing their ways, seeing how far Pink went in order to go against them, force them to see that she was _truly_ resolute about what she was standing for. But actually thinking about how they would react, while he could see Blue and Yellow changing their ways after seeing how much the Earth genuinely meant to Pink, he couldn't see White changing her ways over it. 

He didn't have any strategic information to pass on. He had heard of a few different giant battles, and knew that the Crystal Gems were victorious at the strawberry battlefield, but... he didn't know how they won. Or what they were fighting over in _particular_ at that battlefield. 

At best, he'd just be another person joining in, and helping as best he could. Which he was okay with, if he didn't see the_ whole war_ as preventable. 

And it _was_ preventable! The Diamonds were _capable_ of changing! He had seen the proof of it with his own eyes. 

But the _how_ and _why_ of them changing wasn't something he could reproduce in this timeline, at least not before the war begins. So he'd have to figure something else out. 

He circled the doodle of his Mom and Pearl again. 

The problem was, the Diamonds would only listen to a _fellow_ Diamond. Any non-violent attempt to convince them of the Earth's intrinsic worth would have to come from Pink Diamond, and no one else. Otherwise, it would fall on deaf ears. And Pink Diamond had tried, apparently. She had tried, and failed, to solve it by talking. The Diamonds saw her as irrational, and inexperienced, and sentimental, and so they didn't give her arguments any weight. To the point where Pink Diamond, the only one _capable_ to talking the Diamonds around, decided it was hopeless, and turned towards trying to scare the Gems away from Earth.

He idly doodled an angry Rose Quartz shouting "Boo!" at a random assortment of Gems as he chewed on one of the branches he had been using to mark out the thinner lines. He was kind of beginning to understand Amethyst's fascination with eating things that aren't food. 

It had been a hard wake-up call, when he had eaten bread, and felt it go crunch, and got... not much else. A _very_ detailed sense of texture, a tiny, muted amount of taste, and after swallowing, a constant reminder of the presence of a foreign object inside his body until he shapeshifted the _rest_ of what he needed for digestion and got the chewed-up bread out of him.

Bread and wood had very different textures. 

And his mind was wandering again. 

He shook his head, trying to look at things from a different angle. What he had tried before wouldn't work this time around. There was no millennia-worth of guilt to exploit, there were no regrets on the side of the Diamonds. Pink was here, and alive, and hadn't started a revolution yet, and without her death to throw in their faces, he had no way of forcing the other Diamonds to acknowledge what she had really wanted. He had brought peace to the galaxy by healing a broken a family that had already hit its lowest point- losing Pink Diamond. But right now, they hadn't hit that point yet. All four of them were still in an unhealthy toxic mess he'd need to fix at some point, but he couldn't prevent the war by going at it from that direction right now.

So, what else _did_ he have to work with?

He had himself. 

He had friends, or at least, knew he could make them. He already had a few friends at the sky spire and the village, after all!

He knew that a lot of Gems weren't satisfied with the way the Empire was being run. Both on Earth, and on other colonies across the galaxies. 

He knew how far the Diamond Authority was willing to go- the Corruption, the Cluster, complete mind control -and how far they'd have to be pushed if he wanted to stop them. 

He let the branch drop from his mouth as a new thought hit him. 

He wasn't a Diamond any more, and only just now did it really sink in what that meant. He had spent the last couple of years thinking of the Diamonds as family- like, weird, racist, powerful aunts. People that he had the responsibility to stop, but also to take care of. They were family, and even if that annoyed him to all ends, a lot of the time, it was true. But in this timeline, they'd never, _ever,_ see him as family. And they wouldn't accept that they were his responsibility. 

...

The thought felt almost gross in his stomach, but what if he chose not to see them the same way? Rose Quartz, and therefore Pink Diamond, would always be his Mom to him. And although she had made a _lot_ of mistakes, horrible ones, and he had a lot of complicated feelings about her... Pink Diamond was mostly good. She had good intentions, and tried the hardest she could, and sacrificed a lot for the benefit of people and Gems who didn't owe her anything, and when she saw she was wrong, she would try and fix things. She didn't always succeed, but she always _tried._ She had so much empathy, and desire to understand, and desire to change herself, become better, that she had _him._ His Mom had _earned_ that title.

The Diamonds didn't earn squat until he made them. 

The Diamonds could change. And he _would_ change them, help them. He still refused to kill people, so there wasn't much else choice. But even if they did have the potential to become better people than they were, he _didn't_ have to consider them family. If he had to bubble them, and then let them out one at a time, and explain what they had done wrong, and got them to agree to play nice, with the threat of being bubbled again if they started getting murderous, he'd do it. But he didn't think he would have to.

If there was one advantage he had over his Mom, it was that despite Rose Quartz's incredible empathy, she wasn't very _observant,_ at least not to the feelings of others. She loved humans, loved the idea of humans, but she didn't understand them at all. She didn't really understand her fellow Gems either. She kept secrets because she thought she had to, bubbled Bismuth when she couldn't think of way to talk her down, hurt Pearl again and again, every time she took a human lover, and was never aware that she was doing it. 

Steven did understand, most of the time. He got people. He cared as much as Rose Quartz did, but he understood too. 

He understood the Diamonds. Why they fought. What their weaknesses were. He probably understood those better than his Mom. 

That was something to work with, alright. 

* * *

His ideal plan was a pretty simple one, all things considered. It had to be, considering he didn't know too much about the series of events between now and the end of the Gem War. 

He would have to make contact with his Mom again, and explain his own existence as a time traveler. He would tell her all about what had happened the first time around, and the consequences. Then, he'd work with her to try and make arguments that could potentially convince the Diamonds of the intrinsic worth of all the creatures living on planet Earth. If that didn't work, then he'd work with her to, well, overthrow them. Hopefully, without throwing the entirety of Gem civilization into a civil war while they were at it. 

Most Gems thought of the Diamonds as unbeatable. Even the Diamonds themselves.

Steven knew better. 

In the meantime, to make things easier, he'd go around doing what he did best. Helping people. Finding places where Gems and humans were in conflict with each other, and bring them together. Help them cooperate. Make Gems see humans as people, not pests. He could find places where Off-Color Gems and Fusions could hide until it was okay to live openly as themselves. 

And if the first part of the plan worked, that wouldn't take too long!

He had a good feeling about this. 

Nodding to himself, he eyed the confusing mural that was sprawled across half the cliff face at this point, and sighed. He should probably wash this off, or something. 

He was about to go down to the village and get a pot he could use to carry water back and forth from the wall, when the Warp Pad at the top of the mountain lit up. 

"Rose Quartz Cut-7DT!" came the harsh voice of Condor Agate, "The rest of your unit has emerged, so you can- eh?" 

"Uh oh." 

"DID YOU LEAVE YOUR POST, YOU USELESS CLOD!?" Condor Agate roared, spooking a small colony of birds that fled the top of the mountain. 

Steven hurriedly climbed the cliff, cleaning up his visual aid forgotten, and got over the edge. He looked at Condor Agate, who was glaring down at him with a sneer. "Uh... I can explain?" 

"Oh _can_ you?" she said, stomping towards him and reaching for her hip, where her teardrop-shaped pink-yellow-orange striped Gem was placed. In a flash of light, she summoned her weapon, what looked like a police truncheon, and leveled it in his direction, "Is the explanation that coming out early has left you defective, rebellious, and _useless?"_

"Uh, no." Steven said, "The explanation is that I was... following your directions?" 

"I told you not to move!" 

"Unless-" he interrupted, "-it was to keep the humans from going up the staircase?"

She paused, frowning, "...Then that's what you were doing?" 

"Yep!" he said, "Well, one of them came up the mountain, and he said that the reason was that the Gems making the Sky Spire were dumping all this rock into the river, and it had changed directions, and wrecked some of his village, and he wanted them to stop, so-"

"Wait, wait, you talked to the human?" she asked, "Why?"

"How else would I know how to get them to stop?" 

"By being a terrifying Quartz Guard with a giant shield that they couldn't sneak past!" she said. 

"Well, that'll stop them the first few times, but what would stop them from coming back after I left?"

Condor Agate paused at that, crossing her arms, "...So, what? You _talked_ them into stopping?" 

"Yep!" he said proudly, "The humans have all agreed not to climb up to the spire anymore!" 

She frowned at that, confused, "They're just... animals, though. How can they hold to an agreement?" 

"I made a deal!" 

"A deal?" 

"Yeah, you know, they'll do what we want if we do what they want." Steven said, "Give and take." 

"They're humans." she said, "We don't have to _give_ anything." 

"But it's easier this way. Faster. More... efficient?" he tried. Some Gems really liked that word, like Pearl, Yellow Diamond, and Peridot. 

"What did you give?" Condor Agate asked impatiently. 

"The Amethysts are going to throw the rubble to the side, away from the valley, rather than dump it straight down into the river that feeds into the human village." 

Condor Agate blinked in surprise. "And that's... all?" 

"Yep!" 

She considered his words, before sighing, "Next time, before employing such _unorthodox_ measures, you'll come to me for _permission."_ she aimed her truncheon at his head, and for a moment, it burst into flames, making him take a step back, she smiled at the way he flinched, before dismissing her weapon, "Don't forget your place, _Quartz._ But I must admit, taking steps to make sure what you're guarding will remain protected even after you leave, I like seeing that kind of forward-thinking. You'll rise higher in the ranks, with that kind of initiative." 

"Er, thank you. My Agate." Steven managed. 

"You should be grateful." she said, before stepping back onto the Warp Pad. Now, come along Cut-7DT. I have _work_ for you and the rest of your unit."

Steven hesitated, looking at the Sky Spire and the village below, "Er, before we go, could I say goodbye?" 

"To _who?"_

"The Gems at the Sky Spire? And the humans?" 

"The Gems working don't need your distraction." she said dismissively, "And the humans don't warrant it." 

"...Can I at least wash this off my hands?" 

"Wash what- _eugh!_ What _is_ that?!" 

"Crushed dried plants?" he guessed, "Mud? Um, I think a few of the paints might use animal blood of some kind but-" 

"_Why did you_\- never mind. Yes, ugh. Get yourself clean. It'll look bad if I return with you to the Kindergarten and you're a mess." 

"Thank you!" he set off running, taking off over the side of the mountain, and headed for the river- and coincidentally, the village. "HUANG!" he shouted as he dashed down the mountainside, coming into the village. 

"Steven!" Huang greeted, running up to him, "I've never seen you move that quickly, what's happening?"

"I have to go now!" he said, before scooping the human up into a hug, "And it might be a long time before I can come back here. So I just wanted to thank you! For trusting me that first night, and helping out with the paint. And I wanted to remind you to play nice with the Gems up in the mountains one last time."

Huang was blushing slightly as Steven set him down, but the expression shifted into annoyance as he realized that his back had two giant pink hand prints on it. "You still have paint on your hands!" 

"Oops! Sorry." Steven hurried towards the river, and waded in, walking all the way to the bottom and thoroughly washing himself, before hurrying back out, "But, uh, bye everyone!" he said to the village at large, "I have to go, but it was lovely meeting all of you!" he waved to them as he ran back up the mountain.

Once he was back at the top, he was slightly out of breath, but that passed quickly. Gemhood coming in handy once more. 

"Okay, squeaky-clean now!"

"Good." Condor Agate muttered, before activating the Warp Pad. 

The two of them ascended through the river of light, and Steven let out a sad sigh. He hadn't really factored Condor Agate and... well, that he was expected to have a _job_ into all of this. 

He supposed he could just help out wherever he was stationed, rather than wandering the world randomly. 

But if he was constantly scheduled to go back and forth wherever, how would he meet up with his Mom again?

As they arrived at their destination, and Steven took a step off of the platform following Condor Agate, and looked out over the familiar sight of the Prime Kindergarten. She began walking towards a particular wall, her constant glare causing the occasional roving band of Amethysts, or more rarely, groups of other kinds of Gems, to dodge out of the way of them. 

Steven followed until they reached the wall he had come out of, and fought back an awkward feeling of deja vu as he took in the group of Rose Quartz. The rest of his unit, he presumed.

"My Agate!" the announced, going straight-backed and standing at attention as they approached. 

It was almost bizarre. They all looked so much like his Mom, the only differences were minor, mostly. Different hair lengths or styles. A redder pink for their skin, for some of them, or a paler pink for their hair. A little taller, a little wider, a little thinner, a little shorter. But the faces were all pretty similar. Their Gems were in a variety of places, none of them on their belly like his or his Mom's, but they were all more-or-less similar. 

Except for one.

Condor Agate seemed to focus in on that one as well, approaching a smaller Rose Quartz near the back of the group, trying to hide herself behind one of the others. 

She shoved the one the smallest Quartz was hiding behind to the side, glaring down at her, "I suppose there's one in every batch, hm?" 

Steven inched closer, feeling nervous. 

"One what?" he asked. 

Condor Agate frowned at him, "One _off-color_, idiot." she gestured at the small Quartz, who looked down, ashamed, "I mean, just look at her! Her color's practically washed out!" she reached down and grabbed a curl of hair, lifting it for the others in the unit to see. Most of the strands were a pale pink, but some were flat-out white, or almost gray, "And don't let me get started on the asterism in her Gem!" she turned the Rose Quartz around, revealing the Gemstone set into the base of her spine, which was a paler pink than the others, and had a thin white six-pointed star set into it. She dropped the Rose Quartz, then, "On Homeworld, the likes of you would simply be shattered." 

Steven took a step forwards, a second away from bringing out his shield, when Condor Agate released her hold. The off-color Rose Quartz shuddered, shrinking back. 

Condor Agate watched her squirm for a moment, before smiling, "Fortunately for you, this Colony is our Diamond's very first, and still in the beginning stages, and we _need_ every able-bodied Gem we can get.As long as you don't hold back the rest of your unit, you'll be fine. How very lucky for you, Cut-7DS hm?" 

"Very lucky my Agate." the terrified Gem agreed. 

"Now then!" her mood changed abruptly as she whirled around, smiling, clapping her hands together, "Line up by Cut, and follow me. We need every Gem we can get on the ground and helping. Some of you will get jobs that are well-suited to your caste; protecting important artifacts, accompanying Gems of importance as guards, defending gateways. But others will be sent to do manual labor. We don't have all the specialized Gems that would handle such work as of yet, so you'll have to step in alongside your fellow Quartz." 

The Rose Quartz, including Steven, hurried to form a line, and followed as she marched further into the Kindergarten. He noted that the off-color Rose Quartz was standing right in front of him as they walked, near the back of the line. "You'll be fine." he assured her, "She's just a bully. Don't think too much about anything that she said. There's nothing wrong with you." 

"But- yes there is!" she whispered back at him, "Can't you see it? I'm wrong."

"You're fine. Condor Agate doesn't know what she's talking about." 

"But, she said that on Homeworld-"

"We're not on Homeworld." he assured her, "We're on Earth."

She nodded, and turned away, to focus on keeping in step. He went silent as well. Looking up from the Rose Quartz in front of him, he glared towards the front of the line. He didn't have a hiding spot set up for Gems like 7DS yet, but he wasn't just going to stand by and let this kind of treatment happen in front of him. 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chash1234 on Deviantart made art of the original Gem characters introduced so far!  
https://www.deviantart.com/chash1234/art/Rose-Quartz-Facet-5-Cut-7DS-815766824  
https://www.deviantart.com/chash1234/art/Condor-Agate-815774428  
https://www.deviantart.com/chash1234/art/Pyramid-816075053

"Up against the wall, all of you!" Condor Agate demanded, gesturing to the nearest wall, once they had made it to a part of the Kindergarten that Steven hadn't yet visited in this timeline, and for once, he could see a real difference. In his own time, the Kindergarten was massive, stretching on and on in a series of valleys bunched up together. But as he was led deeper into it here in the past, he could see that it was... smaller. There weren't so many sections, yet, and it didn't stretch much beyond his current point of view. The Kindergarten would get many, many times bigger between now and the time he came from. As it was, they had come to the end of this particular valley, where dozens of Gems were working on digging even further in. 

Condor Agate walked up and down the row, eyeing each of them dispassionately.

Finally, she stopped near the middle of the group, "Summon your shields!" she ordered. 

With a flare of light down the line, their Gem Weapons appeared. Steven's own circular shield wasn't really standard, actually. A good number of the summoned shields were rectangular, or shaped like kites, teardrops, ovals, typical medieval shields, or ones that looked like arrowheads. The tallest Rose Quartz of the group had a diamond-shaped one that she held out proudly. 

Condor Agate nodded with satisfaction, walking up and down the row, and then summoned her own weapon, her truncheon, and idly began to twirl it around by the loop at the end of the handle. "Good, good, all very impressive-looking." she praised, before stopping in front of one of them, and suddenly driving her weapon down into it. 

The shield, a kite-shaped one, shattered instantly, and the Gem behind it only had time to let out a gasp before the truncheon crashed into and through her. She poofed, smoke exploding outwards around her. Her Gem landed on the ground, and Steven broke from the line instantly, heading towards it. He pushed past Condor Agate, and picked up the Gem. He turned it over in his hands, before letting out a sigh of relief when he didn't see any cracks. But that relief was short-lived. He cradled it in one arm, and then stood up, rounding on Condor Agate. "What was that for?!" 

"For?" Condor Agate asked, annoyed, "To test the strength of her shield obviously. It's what Rose Quartz are _for._ If she can't make a proper one, then of course I can't send her anywhere important. Now get back in line." 

"What were you going to do with her Gem?" 

"Just leave it lying there." the Agate said dismissively. 

"No." Steven said, "That's just- what if something falls on her?" 

Condor Agate sighed, before flicking out her truncheon, lightning-fast at him. His shield was between him and the weapon in an instant, and the weapon bounced off without leaving a mark. 

"Hm." Condor Agate considered his shield for a moment, before looking at the other Rose Quartz, who were all watching the face-off with something approaching panic. She turned back to Steven, and her truncheon burst into flames like before, only the handle not wreathed in it. She snapped it out at him again, and found her weapon deflected. Trying a different strategy, she instead moved more slowly, jabbing it into his shield and then keeping it there, advancing on him. 

She was surprisingly strong, to Steven's surprise. He wasn't sure if he was weaker in his Gem body than in his hybrid one, or if Condor Agate was simply a Gem almost as strong as Jasper, but he was getting pushed back, up towards and against the wall. 

The flaming club pressed against his shield, and it began to crack under the pressure, the heat making his shield begin to heat up uncomfortably as well. 

Gritting his teeth, he pushed back all at once, forcing his shield and Condor Agate back, before dismissing it. Her forward push sent her off-balance, and she nearly tripped towards him. A second shield emerged over his hand, and he grabbed the rim of it, angling it out so that she fell face-first directly on the edge of it. 

"Ow!" she yelped.

That was meant to poof her!

Steven made use of her distraction to shove her back. As she landed on her butt, he pulled back his shield, ready to throw it at her, when she jabbed out again and got him in the stomach with her truncheon. Right above the Gem. 

"Ow!" it was his turn, this time. He doubled over, and then created a bubble shield to protect him from her follow up. 

But there wasn't any. 

"Very good!" she said, grinning, "I don't appreciate the rebelliousness, but very, _very_ good!" she walked a circle around him, "Two different kinds of shields? Summoned right after each other, and strong enough to take one of my strikes head on without breaking. More than that, you've already put some thought into how to fight with them. That's not usually part of a Rose Quartz' instincts. Too focused on defense. Offense is something you have to teach them. But not you. It _almost_ makes up for the insubordination." her grin vanished, "Now, drop the shields." 

Steven watched her, considering, for a moment, before doing as she asked. 

"You'd be wasted on manual labor." she said, before pointing towards the wall on the opposite side of the valley, "Wait until the others have finished their testing." 

"Are you just going to keep poofing them?" 

"That depends on the quality of their shields." she snaps, "Now, stop talking, and go stand where I told you." 

Steven bristled, before turning and walking. 

"And leave the weak one here." she said, _"She's_ going to be working on the expansion." 

Steven frowned, looking at the Gem still in his hand, but before he could come to a decision, it began to glow, rising out of his hands and floating a short distance away. The Rose Quartz reformed, slowly, coming out almost exactly as she had been before, no real changes to her outfit or hair.

She brought her shield up in panic the moment she finished reforming. 

"Ah, back with us. Next time something attacks you, maybe you'll put more effort into your shield, hm? Get over there and help the others with the expansion." Condor Agate barked. 

"Y-yes my Agate." she squeaked, before taking off running towards where the other Gems were working. 

Condor Agate huffed, before snapping her weapon at the next unprepared Rose Quartz in the line, shattering her shield, and poofing her too. Her Gem landed on the Earth, but without damage. 

"Manual labor!" 

She moved on to the next.

Steven clenched his fists. 

Should he just try a sneak attack? Poof her to stop this stupid, mean-spirited, bootcamp thing? 

But then what would come next? He'd be outing himself openly as a rebel, even more than he already had. It wasn't like she was _breaking_ the Gems- just scaring, humiliating, and hurting them. He probably would openly rebel somepoint soon in the future, but maybe now wasn't the best time. He still wanted the chance to interact with other Gems without them being cautious of him being a criminal or a rebel or a defect. 

His hands relaxed. The anger forcefully pushed to the side. Passionately standing up for what's right wasn't ever a bad thing, he thought, but sometimes, it was time for Diplomatic Steven. 

He walked back up to Condor Agate, putting a hand on her shoulder. "You're _very quickly_ getting on my nerves, Quartz." she growled, slipping from his grip.

"I just wanted to tell you something." he said.

"Not interested. If you care so much about the other Gems getting discorporated you can too." she threatened, waving her weapon under his nose, "Now, go over there and _wait."_

"What you're doing isn't helping you." 

"Excuse me?" 

"Scaring us like this. It won't help them- _us,_ learn. You can test our shields in a way that doesn't hurt us. The only reason I was able to keep my shield up while nobody else could is that I had way more practice than any of them- they all emerged today! You can't hold them to the same standard! It just makes them feel inadequate. That doesn't make people get stronger, that just makes them doubt their confidence. What if someone whose shield would have stood up to the strike won't anymore, because she's seen other Gems fail?" 

Condor Agate blinked, before snarling, "I _know_ how to do my _job,_ thank you very much! I _emerged_ knowing the best way! And I can assure you, all Gems learn best through _fear!"_

She moved far faster than he expected, the truncheon jabbing into his chest and igniting with a terrifying amount of heat. 

So this is what it would be like to be poofed. 

* * *

Condor Agate sneered as the Gem dropped down to the ground in front of her, landing on its edge and rolling for a short time before tipping over onto the ground. 

A small part of her wanted to just take a few steps forwards and grind her heel into it. Crush the too-nosy, weird-thinking, double-guessing, back-talking, early-rising, too-big-for-her-britches little _clod_ into pink sparkly dust.

But it would be a waste. A huge waste. One that she would have had to answer for if she followed that first impulse. 

What she said to 7DT about 7DS' defects had been the truth. On homeworld, defective Gems like 7DS's or defiant behavior like 7DT's was more than enough reason to break them. Or at the very least harvest them, in 7DT's case. But here, on Earth? The colony had just begun. They needed every extra set of hands they could get. Pink Diamond's Court at the moment was only really made up of a handful of Gems doing vital work that were on loan from the other three Diamonds, and what few Gems have already emerged from the Kindergarten on Earth. Oh, and a large number of Pink Jades, that were just going to wait on Homeworld having parties until all their spires and castles were ready.

She wasn't resentful, of course. There was no purpose in bringing them all the way to the colony in its earliest stages. One couldn't expect _Jades_ to do manual labor. They weren't built for that. They were built for governing other groups of Gems, and overseeing little details,_ and dancing at big parties._ Although Pink Diamond's Jades in particular have been doing a _lot_ of party-going and _not_ a lot of governing at all.

Once again, not resentful. It was simply that this was their Diamond's first colony. They _had_ nothing to govern until now. 

It still meant most of the work went to Quartzes, at least until the more specialized Gems could be injected and emerge. 

She also held back because of how skilled 7DT was. Even with a three-day headstart on the rest of her unit, she had come farther than any other Rose Quartz. Maybe only two or three had shown the ability to summon a full-body bubble shield in addition to their own default shield. More than that, 7DT had attempted to make use of the edge of her shield as a weapon, and had been quick to dispel and resummon her shield as a distraction. She had yet to see any of the others willing to consider the possibility of dropping their shields in order to win a fight. 

Not that there were too many other Rose Quartz to compare her progress to. The 7A, 7B, and 7C units that emerged in the months before them being the only other ones in existence at the moment. 

7DT had the potential to rise in the ranks, she was sure of it. 7DT would be famous across the Empire someday, with instincts like those, and by extension, as her unit's Agate, Condor Agate would similarily rise in status. Pink's Court was only in its nascent stages, and with an early success story like this, Condor Agate was sure that she would remain a key figure in it for millennia to come. 

She just had to beat the disobedience out of 7DT first. 

She left the stone lying on the ground, and looked at the others, who all shrank back as her gaze fell on them. The largest of the group, 7DL with her proud diamond-shaped shield, flinched, and let her shield fizzle out as she made eye contact with Condor Agate.

"Shields _up!"_ she barked, and the Rose Quartz hurried to comply, although it took her a few tries where before she had summoned it again. 

_What you're doing isn't helping you._

She pushes the unwanted thought away, and breaks another shield and discorporates another Gem.

* * *

Inside his Gem was a whole world, it seemed like. It reminded him a lot of his Mom's room, but without the clouds. Just an endless expanse of pinks and peaches and whites and reds, stretching off in every direction. Actually, thinking on it, it was a lot like when he would enter people's minds when he slept. 

He couldn't feel his body, not really, but he could still see it. Like from the third person. He could make himself move, but his view wasn't connected to where his body's head was looking. A bit eerie, actually. He walked around in the endless pink room and waited for something to happen, but nothing did. 

At least it let him get a better look at himself, the only one he had since arriving in the past. The humans hadn't invented mirrors yet, and none of the Gems had any handy. He had only really gotten a brief look at himself using his own shield. His hair was long, trailing well down his back, and all the same shade of light pink. It was bouncy and fluffy like his own hair, rather than curly like his Mom's. 

His uniform was typical to the one all the Quartz wore. Dark pinks and purples, a pink diamond symbol on his chest. 

His body was... 

Hm. 

He didn't mind, he supposed, but it didn't feel _right._

The hair became shorter, shrinking and shrinking until it was back to his preferred length. His hips and waist shifted slightly, his limbs became a little thicker around. His face structure shifted just a little bit more- already it was pretty close to his own face as a human, but now, it was right where it was supposed to be. He had gone away from androgyny, and was now resting little more firmly in the male category. 

The uniform changed almost without him thinking about it. A star replacing the diamond on his chest, a jacket forming, the boots vanished and were replaced with his favored sandals. 

The pinks and purples of the uniform changed into blues and reds and yellows.

He smiled, then, before mentally sighing. 

He left his body as it was, but the uniform returned. He'd change it sometime soon, but for now, it was best not to stand out _too_ much. 

As he looked over himself from every angle, making just another few tiny changes, he felt satisfied. That feeling seemed to be the trigger, and he began to feel the third-person view turn aside as he was pulled back into the body, his perspective shifting from some unknown point in the room towards his Gem, and then, to his own eyes. 

The pink vanished into pure, blinding, white light, and then he was in the Kindergarten again. 

"Oh!" 

He blinked and turned to the side, spotting 7DS. "You, uh, you're alright." she said, surprised. 

"Would I... not be?" 

"It's been a while." she admitted, "The rest of us all came back within a few minutes." 

"How long was I...?" Steven began, confused. 

"About a _week."_

"Oh, wow." he breathed. He would have to be careful about that, from now on. It _really_ didn't seem that long inside his Gem. Not even close.

"You look... different." 

"I made some changes." he admitted, "I feel more... me, looking like this." 

"Maybe that's why." 7DS said, "When I got discorporated, I didn't think to change anything. I didn't think we _could." _she said, amazed, her expression fell, then, "We should tell Condor Agate." 

"How have things been with her?" he asked, "While I was gone. How mad was she?" 

"Things were... pretty bad the first few days." she admitted, "I don't think any of us got out of being discorporated at least once or twice. But she's calmed down a lot, now."

"That's good." Steven said hopefully, "Er, not the getting poofed part. The, 'her calming down' part. Um... how much trouble do you think I'm in, right now?" 

"I really don't know." she said, starting to walk deeper into the Kindergarten. 

He followed after her, noticing the way that other Gems working paused to look at him in surprise, before returning to their duties of carrying rocks. 

"She started getting worried, about three days ago." she said, "At first, she ordered that we just leave you on the ground, and she was discorporating us over and over, testing our shields. Then when you didn't reform, she had us start training our shields more gently against each other. No more dispersing our physical forms. She was worried that whatever was stopping you from reforming might happen to one of us, too." 

"Aw." he said, only partly sarcastically, "So she does care." 

"I _think_ so." she said, surprising him, "She got a Fluorite to look at you and check your Gem over with something yesterday, and when she said you were fine, Condor Agate began muttering about taking you to Pink Diamond to see if _she_ could do anything." 

"Huh." 

They came to another group of Rose Quartz engaged in some kind of sparring exercise, taking turns going on the defensive and offensive. One Rose Quartz would bring out her shield, and the other would wail on it with their fists, or kick at it, or try to just tackle through their defense. 

"My Agate?" 7DS tried quietly. 

"What?" Condor Agate asked, before turning away from the sparring to face her, and catching sight of Steven. Surprise, joy, anger, and then annoyed acceptance passed through her face, "Oh. Thank you, 7DS. Return to your work." 

"Yes, my Agate." she said, before slipping away. Steven watched her run off, and then turned his attention to Condor Agate, who once more had her weapon out. 

"You're in a lot of trouble, 7DT." she growled out, "I've had to rethink a lot of my conclusions about you. Why didn't you reform?" 

"I wanted to change my appearance a little. Sorry," he said, "I didn't think it would take so long. It didn't _feel_ like a long time." 

"Why on Earth did you want to change your appearance?" she asked, "You're a soldier! Your duty, after being discorporated, is to try to get back into fighting form as quickly as possible! When you're fighting a monster, or putting down a rogue Gem, or get caught in an accident, and end up discorporated, you don't want to spend any time being harmless and vulnerable! For someone who was so worried about one of your Unit getting stepped on, you were being pretty darn reckless _yourself."_

"Sorry." 

"Do you have anything else you'd like to apologize for?" she pressed. 

"No." 

Anger flared up in her eyes, "Oh? Did the insubordination slip your mind while you were busy giving yourself a tune-up?"

He sighed, before looking out at the sparring Gems. "I see nobody's getting poofed during this." 

She bristled.

"Is it going well?" he asked. 

She watched him suspiciously for a moment, before looking back over the group, "...After your little display against me, morale... wasn't at its best." she admitted, "But they've all improved their shield strength since then."

"And they haven't been poofing each other?" he asked. 

"Once I realized just how disruptive your extended _nap_ was, I decided it wasn't worth the risk of potentially delaying their training just for the sake of leaving a stronger impact on their minds." she muttered, "If any of the others pulled your stunt after losing their physical forms, it would reflect badly on me." she eyed him, "So in the future, we will not be wasting any time tidying up our hair, _understood,_ Quartz?" 

Steven nodded, serious, "Of course my Agate." 

She blinked in surprise, before looking away from him. "7DF, your attention is flaring. Go carry rocks for a few hours. 7DL, you have a new sparring partner." she shoved Steven forwards roughly, but he couldn't help but smile anyway. She had listened to him. That was a start.


	6. Chapter 6

"Uh, hey, Condor Agate?" 

"Yes? What is it 7DT?" 

"I was wondering... how would I get into contact with Pink Diamond?" 

She smirked, "How would _you_ get into contact with Pink Diamond?" Steven nodded, hopeful, "Oh, it's impossible. Pink Diamond would _never_ agree to an audience with one of her lower-ranked guards." 

He rolled his eyes, "Then how would Gems in general get into contact with Pink Diamond?" 

"Well, in general? You would have to request an audience with Pink Diamond through official channels. For us soldiers, that would be through the Kindergarten's main terminal." 

"The main terminal?" 

Condor Agate shrugged, "I actually have never been down there. There's a few courier Turquoise that head in and out of the tunnels. When all of us Agates were emerging, they were on hand to give us our unit assignments, and then headed back underground. Mainly, it's just a lot of Peridots, mostly on loan from Yellow and Blue Diamond, overseeing the minutia and development of the Kindergarten." 

Steven nodded, "But I'd have to go down there to send a request?"

"Yep. Although even after making a request, even high-ranked Gems like myself aren't likely to get an audience with Pink Diamond. She's _immensely_ busy, after all, considering how early in development this Colony still is in. More likely, if you don't have anything vitally important to say, your request will be discarded. If it is considered important, you'll _maybe_ get into contact with a Pyrope or Hessonite, although if you're lucky one of the Morganites or Bixbites will decide to hear you out." 

Steven considered that, "What if it's something that Pink Diamond herself really should hear?"

"What, something that can't be passed on to one of her loyal Beryls or Garnets? What kind of information could that possibly be?" 

Steven looked at Condor Agate, then, and thought about how she had been changing over the last few days. She was still harsh and abrasive, and she still firmly believed she was superior to the rest of them due to her type of Gem, and her place in the hierarchy. She could get mean, and push them too far, but she had been improving, bit by bit, as the days went by. Steven had taken a few chances every day to talk about positive reinforcement, and she was taking parts of it to heart. 

He was beginning to trust her a little, now. And he knew that she had the potential to be a good person. 

But he was still pretty sure she'd consider his plans treason, not wanting or willing to believe that Pink Diamond would agree with him if she had the chance to say so. And considering she was stronger and faster than him, and had a weapon that could go through his shield, he didn't know if he would survive if she _did_ think it was treason. 

"It's about her Pearl." Steven said, stretching the truth. 

"Her Pearl?" Condor Agate asked. 

He nodded, "She was there when I first emerged, she was looking for a guard to join her in a survey mission ordered by Pink Diamond."

Condor Agate frowned, "Is that so. What did you want to talk to her about?"

"Well, I spent some time talking to the humans at the Sky Spire, remember?"

"Yes?" 

"I learned some things about them, and the Earth, that I think Pink Diamond should know." he said, determined, "Her Pearl probably didn't talk to the humans- just observed them from afar. It could help with that survey mission." All of it was technically true.

Condor Agate rolled the idea around in her head, before eyeing him, "Why didn't you bring this up before now?" 

"It only occurred to me a little while ago that it would help her to know?" Steven said hopefully. This part _was_ a lie.

"Hm." she reached for her Gem, and out of it came a small device, shaped like a glass pyramid, "Very well, follow me. Ah-" she turned to the other Quartz, which had been alternating between spars and helping with construction, "-I'll be back shortly. Everyone is on rock-carrying duty until I return." she ignored the groans of disappointment- something Steven saw as a wonderful sign of progress, considering a few days ago none of the Rose Quartz would dare complain about anything within her earshot -and marched towards the center of the Kindergarten, in the same direction as the Warp Pad, and his and the Amethyst's emergence holes. 

Once they were away from the others, she eyed him, "Now, there's no gurantee that your request will even reach Pink Diamond. What's most likely to happen is that your request will go into a queue, and some Garnet or Beryl will maybe decide to look into it and talk to you. If _that_ meeting goes well, then you'll get your chance to speak with Pink Diamond." 

"It seems kind of roundabout. What about in emergencies?" 

"There are no emergencies, for Diamonds." Condor Agate said proudly, "They are indestructible, invincible, and infallible. No matter what setbacks fate throws at a Diamond, they will persevere without blemish or flaw. And for the rest of us... well, that's what Garnets are for." 

They reached a patch in the ground that Steven thought he maybe recognized, especially once Condor Agate set her glass pyramid down on it, and the object grew and sunk into the ground. A hole in the earth appeared in its place, and Condor Agate led Steven deeper inside. 

He looked around, wide-eyed, as he recognized the place where he had first spoken with Peridot. Green crystalline pipes ran through the ceiling, floor, and walls, leading to a recess in the wall where a huge screen remained, showing various details about the Kindergarten's progress. 

The main difference, though, is that the room wasn't alone. What he had thought of as walls in the future, were revealed to be doors, huge ones, that would open slightly to allow through Gems. A handful of Peridots- Era 1, Steven guessed, considering they didn't have limb enhancers, and one shapeshifted her hand into a tool were seeing to the main screen, but there were a few other Gems as well. There were two Fluorites, tall Gems in fluffy outfits with their hair done up in complicated shapes. One of them blue-green, the other striped green and pink, each looking at something on a smaller monitor that appeared on the wall. A blue-green Aragonite, with spikes on her shoulders and her fingers ending in drills, was typing something into the console, before reading the result and walking through the door to go somewhere else. Finally, there was a Turquoise standing out of the way in the corner. A skinny body type similar to Lapis or Pearl's, mostly a deep, well, turquoise color with black stripes spreading across her body. Her hair long and straight. She was idly sketching things on the wall with ink coming from her finger, before wiping them away with her hand and beginning the picture again.

Condor Agate headed directly to the Turquoise, "I'm here to send a message." 

The Turquoise looked away for her drawing, wiping it away with a sigh, she held out her hand, her Gem making up the finger-tip, and a square of light was projected from it. "Who's the recipient?" she asked in a bored tone. 

"Pink Diamond." 

The Turquoise looked considerably more alert, now. 

Condor Agate gestured behind herself, to Steven, "This Rose Quartz would like to have an audience with her Radiance. 7DT, describe the situation." 

"Uh, yes!" he stepped up, and the Turquoise looked at him, now, "Uh, so, when I emerged, Pink Diamond's Pearl was in the kindergarten, and she said that she was getting a guard for a survey mission of Earth, and uh, right after that, I was posted at the Sky Spire, and I interacted with some humans there! And, um. I think that was part of what the survey was... searching for? And that the information I have, about humans, and the Earth, could be really useful, and I think..." 

He watched, losing confidence, as the Turquoise took down each of his words in the written Gem language that he had never really gotten around to reading. But he could tell that it was stilted and confused. He thought for a moment about what exactly he wanted to say. "Actually, could you start again from the beginning?" he asked apologetically.

She glared at him for a moment, before wiping the rectangle of light clean from her ink, and starting again, "_To her Radiance, Pink Diamond." _Turquoise said out loud as she wrote, "_I, Rose Quartz Facet-5 Cut-7DT, currently stationed in the Prime Kindergarten, humbly request an audience at your convenience. I wish to give you information that I learned from interacting with a group of the native organic lifeforms known as 'humans'. Due to having learned of a mission you sent your personal Pearl on, I believe this information will be relevant to your interests. I would be honored if you would consider my request, my Diamond. Thank you, my Diamond._" she looked up from the message, "Will that be satisfactory?" 

"Uh, yes. Thank you!"

She nodded, and then folded the rectangle of light in half, turning the whole thing black, and inserted it into the terminal.

"Typically, Pink Diamond responds to requests for an audience within eight years and never. I've marked it high priority, so a lower-ranking elite Gem will likely come across it at a point earlier than that. Maybe three years. If they think it's important, they might bring it to Pink Diamond's attention earlier." 

Steven deflated slightly, "That's a long time to wait."

"She's a very busy Gem, I assume." Turquoise said, raising an eyebrow, "Are there any other messages you would like to send?" 

Steven blinked, surprised, "Actually, yes, I would." 

Turquoise nodded, drawing out another rectangle of light. 

"Who would you want to talk to?" Condor Agate asked. 

"Pyramid!" he said, grinning, "She's a Bismuth who was working on the Sky Spire. I want to know how the humans have been acting since I left." 

Turquoise nodded, "Do you have a Facet Number and Cut?" 

Steven narrowed his eyes, thinking, "Uh... 2PY! Facet-5 Cut-2PY." 

She nodded. 

Steven grinned, and began dictating his message, "Hey Pyramid! This is Steven, just checking in on how everything has been going. How has life been lately? Did the humans keep their promise not to go up any more? Do the Amethysts still cause trouble? Did anything fun happen since I left? The rest of my unit is really nice. 7DL is my main sparring partner, but she keeps refusing all my nicknames for her. She's a really big Rose Quartz with a diamond-shaped shield. While Starry and I like to chat whenever we carry rocks. She's accepted my nickname at least. I had some trouble with Condor Agate when I first got back, but I think we're friends now, and she's nicer the longer you get to know her. Write me back soon! Love, Steven." 

Turquoise finished writing down the last words, and did the same thing as before, folding it in half. But rather than put it in the terminal, she simply slid the construct of light back into her Gem. 

"Any other messages?" 

"No, I think that's it, thank you." 

She nodded, "Then I'll go deliver this." she gave a short bow to Condor Agate before heading up the path they came from. 

Steven moved to follow her, before pausing and looking over at Condor Agate, who was frowning at him. 

"Condor Agate?" he asked. 

"I'm... your _friend?"_

He nodded, "Sure." 

"I discorporated you." she said, "I was a moment's frustration away from _breaking_ you, your first day back." 

"But you haven't done anything like that since. And you regret it, right?" 

She crossed her arms, "...It was within my rights, as your Agate." 

"That's not a real answer." Steven said easily. 

She flinched, and glanced behind her, at the Peridots, who had stopped working, watching them with interest. 

"You will show me _respect,_ Quartz." Condor Agate snapped, ripping her gaze away from their Peridot audience. 

He realized his mistake, then. In front of the rest of the unit, who had all gotten used to the new mostly threat-free style of training she used, conversation like equals was okay. But in front of _other_ Gems? It would look like she wasn't doing her job. Steven immediately did the Diamond salute, bowing, "Forgive me, my Agate." 

"Hmph. I'll think up a fitting punishment for you later." she stomped up the ramp, and he followed behind, glancing back at the Peridots, who had returned to their usual work. 

They walked in silence, until Condor Agate said quietly, "I don't regret it." 

Steven frowned, not reply. 

"If I didn't do it, you wouldn't have scared me." she continued, "And I would have just _kept_ doing it." 

He smiled. 

* * *

Starry- formerly 7DS, smiled as he joined her in rock-carrying duty. 

In Unit 7D, each of the twenty-three Rose Quartz had spent time both sparring and carrying rocks, but some Gems did more of one than the other. 7DL, for instance, spent almost all of her time sparring. She was a natural at it, and loved it. Where other Gems would start getting mentally exhausted if not physically exhausted after spending just a few hours practicing, 7DL could keep at it without getting bored or overwhelmed for solid days at a time.

She was probably the strongest Gem in their Unit, although he was better than her in a fight simply due to his experience. 

But, on the opposite end of the spectrum, was Starry. The smallest and probably physically weakest of the group, she spent almost all of her time carrying rocks, and almost none of it sparring. This was partly for her own protection. While most of the Rose Quartz haven't been poofed once in the whole week, Starry got poofed nearly every time she tried sparring, no matter how gently her opponents tried to handle her. Her shield fractured easily- the star design imprinted on it was apparently one big weak spot -and she couldn't stand her ground against a tackle from any of the others. 

He supposed this was why Off-Colors were considered defective. Starry wasn't really suited to being a soldier or guard. 

But she had her own talents. 

"So, what had Condor Agate blushing when you came back?" she asked him, briefly shape-shifting her face into a perfect match of their commander's for a moment, even getting the orange streaks of her hair and her eyes, a happy flustered expression plastered onto her mimicry's face. She was back to her usual face before he could blink. 

"I told her that I considered her my friend." 

"That was all? She still looks distracted by it." 

The path to the location where they were dumping the rock was a winding one, worn down by Gems walking up and down near-constantly. Starry stopped when they only had a few more turns to get to the top of the cliff, and instead made her arms grow. She tossed her load at where she knew the pile would be, and then returned her arms to the normal shape, and turned around to get the next load. Steven hurried a bit, climbing the hill the normal way, throwing his rocks in, and then leaping down to join Starry again. 

While she wouldn't be giving Spinel a challenge anytime soon in the spontaneous shapeshifting department, Starry could probably give Amethyst a run for her money. 

"What were you two doing, anyway?" 

"I wanted to send some messages." he said.

"To your friend from the Sky Spire?" Starry asked. 

He nodded, "She'd like you, I think." 

Starry frowned, glancing away, "Sure." she said noncommittally. 

He had talked to her about not feeling ashamed about the asterism. That she still mattered, that she had just as much dignity as any other Gem, but she didn't believe it. It didn't help that the other Rose Quartz in their unit acted different around her. They were very touchy-feely, and playful shoves and bumps were part of normal interactions between them. But nobody wanted to accidently knock her over, or poof her. They weren't mean to her, they didn't dislike her, but they were less comfortable around her than with each other. 

"She really would." Steven insisted, "She was really good at shapeshifting. She turned her hands into a huge whistle, and when we were clearing the mud from the river, she made all kinds of shapes and tools without even thinking about it." 

Starry looked wistful, "It must be nice." 

"Hm?" 

"Building things all day, rather than just carrying rocks or fighting."

"..." he looked down the hill, and saw that the closest pair heading up were two Amethysts, deep in their own conversation. "Hey, come with me for a second." 

"Huh?" 

He kept going even when the footpath turned, and slid down the hill instead, until he came close to an emergence hole in the nearby wall. He grabbed the lip of it, and pulled himself inside. It was kind of rude, hanging out in someone else's emergence hole, but nobody really looked inside them, either. One of the older Onyx that worked in the same part of the Kindergarten as their unit told them about it.

That sometimes, a Gem just needed some privacy and to stop and relax for a couple minutes. So, when you needed some privacy, just slip into a hole, and don't make too much noise. There were literally thousands of the holes, and nobody ever bothered checking them. 

A moment later, Starry did the same thing, and he grabbed her arms as she slid past, lifting her into the hole. 

"What are we doing?" she asked, "Shouldn't we be working?" 

"We can get back to it in just a moment." he said, "Nobody's going to mind if we take a few extra minutes getting down." 

She hesitated, but nodded all the same. 

"I want to see you build something." he said, gesturing to the back of the emergence hole. 

She frowned, not comprehending. 

"You said it would be nice to build things." he said, "Why don't you try it?" 

She hesitated, before heading deeper into the hole, and forming one of her hands into a pick. She hit the back of the hole with it, and sent some rock crumbling down. Then, she did it again, and again. Her other arm shaped into a blade, and she began edging it along the inside of the hole she made. 

Bit by bit, she worked, getting more confident, and more absorbed in the task, as she worked. 

He watched, trying to figure out what she was going for, but it seemed like she was just digging deeper into the hole. 

But after a few minutes, she let out a sigh, and turned- and sat down in the seat she had dug out of the rock. It was just big enough that she could lean back in the seat and her shoulders wouldn't hit the wall on either side. She sagged into it, and relaxed. 

He waited another few minutes, before holding out his hand, "Come on. We should probably get back to work."

She took the hand, and let him lift her up out of her seat, "What was the point of this?" 

"To show you you're good at something." 

"But it's the wrong thing to be good at." she protested, "Just because I know I _can_ carve, doesn't mean I should." 

"Well, you're right in that I don't think Condor Agate would approve." he said, "But I think you shouldn't worry too much about whether it's something you _should_ do or not. Just whether you enjoy it or not." 

"..."

"One of the Onyx around here says that everyone who gets stuck permanently on rock-carrying duty takes breaks, from time to time." he said, "People even take breaks on Homeworld. It's normal."

"It's _normal?"_

"And it's normal to do things you enjoy, too. Even if it isn't what a Rose Quartz is meant to do, doesn't mean you're not allowed to not enjoy things ever." 

She dusted herself off, and climbed out of the hole, heading back towards where the expansion of the canyon was ongoing. She picked up an armful of rocks, and Steven did the same, before walking back the way they came, and up the hill again. 

"Do you _really_ think your Bismuth friend would like me?" 

"I'm sure of it."

* * *

Turquoise had to do a lot of running, some days, and a lot of standing around most others. Most messages in the Prime Kindergarten are reports, of various kinds. And thus, are being sent _out._ Usually to a place with its own terminal, which meant for most of the messages she 'delivered' all she had to do was write it, and stick it into the terminal. 

It was only when someone needed a Gem from the Kindergarten to do something elsewhere that she got to do some actual running. She loved to run. And she loved to travel. She thought all Turquoise did, probably, being couriers. 

However, today, she was not properly enjoying the chance to run from one end of the Kindergarten to the other. 

This was because she was carrying something very, very, important. Something she had never held in her hands before. 

_A message from her Diamond. _

_A **high-priority** message from **her Diamond.**_

Also a message from a Bismuth, but that was less important. 

She moved as fast as she could, simply vaulting over or under Gems that didn't get out of her way fast enough, until she was in the location that Unit 7D was supposed to be practicing in. 

"Priority message!" she shouted, screeching to a halt in front of the group of Quartz. "I've got a priority message for 7DT!" 

One of them, the same Quartz she had seen the day before, stepped forwards "Hey! That was really fast, thank you! Did Pyramid write back already?" 

"Well, yes-" she took out the second, less-important message, "But-"

"Thanks!" she took the message from the Bismuth, and opened it, reading, leaving her holding the message from **Pink Diamond**. "Um, actually, could you read this for me? I uh, can't really read." she whispered, embarassed.

He _couldn't-_ she frowned. Was that normal for Quartz? Agates could read, but they were commanders. She supposed a dumb regular Quartz soldier probably didn't need to read much, but... 

"I really think we should read this one first." she pressed.

"Please? I haven't seen Pyramid in a while."

Her eye twitched, and she opened the letter she was still holding, instead. 

"_To Rose Quartz Facet-5 Cut-7DT_. _From Pink Diamond_." she began reading. 7DT's face went slack in surprise. "_My Pearl has informed me of her meeting with you, so she brought my attention to this request. I would very much like to hear about any discoveries you've made about humans, and hear about your interactions with them. It sounds fascinating! Please come to the moon base at your earliest convenience. Please be aware that the Warp Pad will be in a vacuum, so do not bring any organic life with you._"

7DT was silent for a few moments, before smiling wide, "Well, I guess I better go see her. Is that okay Cond-"

"YES! GO!" the Rose Quartz' Agate shouted, shoving her in the direction of the Warp Pad. 

"Okay, see you!"

Turquoise watched as the Rose Quartz ran off. The other Quartz guards seemed to not know what to say.

The Agate, however, began to grin wide, "She's taken notice of 7DT! My ticket to fame and influence and a place in her Court is all but guaranteed!" she cheered.

The smallest of the group stepped forwards, "Um, unless she tries doing what she did with you." 

The Agate turned towards her smallest subordinate. Really, too small to be a Quartz. An Off-Color, Turquoise realized with frown. 

"What do you mean?" the Agate asked. 

"You know... ask her to change things? Tell her she's wrong?" the Off-Color suggested. 

"But- she wouldn't, would she? Say something like that to her Diamond's face?" the Agate asked, the smile slowly falling. "Right?"

"Oh _shards_ she's going to get herself shattered." the Off-Color said, miserable.

* * *

Steven practically danced as he ran towards the Warp Pad. He had a really good feeling about this!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Even more fanart! https://www.deviantart.com/egbeat/art/Facet-5-Cut-7DT-832367432 Made by the talented Egbeat on Deviantart.

He stepped off of the Warp Pad, expecting to need to hop, but instead... things just felt normal. He hopped in place a few times, but sure enough, gravity hadn't changed.

"Oh, right. My body is just a light projection now." Steven said, although without any air, there was no sound, a cloud of ice crystals spraying out instead. Shrugging, he looked out into the distance, seeing a familiar tower. Another thing that looked exactly as it did six thousand years in the future.

He looked up into the sky, taking in the sight of the earth floating in a black sea of stars, and silently sighing. It was so beautiful. It was also... different. _Extremely_ different. As in, there _wasn't_ a gigantic sea in the middle of Asia that there was _supposed_ to be. It was all land. And South America was smaller, and Africa was a bigger, and Australia was a _lot_ bigger, and what was that little peninsula sticking out of the East Coast of America? Or the island that was supposed to be in the middle of the Atlantic.

How... how much did the Gems change the planet in the next fifteen hundred years?

For the first time since arriving, he wondered about how much the _future_ would change.

He knew, from experience, that time travel didn't actually _change_ things. It just made new timelines. He had already kind of accepted that his changes might cause things- even people, he knew in his own world to be different. He saved Huang's village, where, maybe in his original timeline, they had to move. Maybe someone from that village had a kid with someone in the area they moved to, and that kid had descendants that stretched across six thousand years- hundreds, maybe thousands, or even _millions,_ of people that didn't exist in his timeline. How much would that change things?

But...

How much more would changing anything the Gems as a culture did? If he prevented the partial terraforming of the Earth... would anything or anyone at all stay the same? The people of Beach City, his Dad, _Connie?_

He stared up at the Earth for a little while, until ice began to form over his eyes. He wiped them clear, and sat down.

...

He missed them. He missed them a _lot._

Ice covered his vision completely, sealing his eyes shut. He wiped it away, but more formed. Giving up, he laid down in the white sandy surface. It was cold. _Incredibly_ cold. But it didn't hurt. This... this was something he could have never experienced in his old life. Something he would never be able to share with Connie or Dad or- any human he knew. 

He hadn't had the chance to say goodbye. 

He had- he was only seventeen! Little Homeworld had only been complete for a few weeks. Connie hadn't gone to college yet. They hadn't finished healing all the corrupted Gems yet! He hoped _desperately_ that his Gem was still there in the world he left behind. He certainly didn't bring it _here._ They would need it. He needed it. He wanted to be back there!

He was so weak! 

It all- it all made him mad, and sad, and... 

And he had been ignoring it. Because if he had stopped to think of home, of his friends, his family, he would fall apart. Like he was now. 

He laid there for some time, thoughts of what he had lost, what he might be _preventing from existing_, rolling around like thunderclouds in his mind. 

He didn't _want_ the world to be one where they would never exist. But at the same time, he knew that they still existed. His memories were real, so _they_ were real. Steven knew he would never be able to sit out the war and just let things play out the way they did before, he just didn't have it in him. He would still try to change things.

He smashed the ice with a hand, and then put a bubble over his head. He breathed out, filling it with whatever air was still inside his body. It smelled like the wood he had been chewing on. Tears didn't freeze, and he sat up, letting them pool near his neck. 

He looked down at cold surface of the moon. He began to scratch names down, pressing his super-strong finger through the dust and into the rock. As many as he could remember. 

He hoped he would be able to see them again. Maybe... when he accomplished whatever he was sent here to do, he would just wake up in his own world again? Be able to see Connie and his Dad, and all his human friends again. He hoped so, but... he didn't have any control over it. All he had control of was what he could do now, here.

This was an important moment.

He would have _all_ the time in the world to mourn them, or try to get back to them, _after_ he did his best to stop the war. But Steven couldn't keep Pink Diamond waiting forever. 

He looked out over the names, and sighed. "I love you." he said, before popping his bubble, the water freezing again. He brushed it away, and began walking towards the tower again. 

He approached the door, which opened automatically for him. He stepped inside, letting the door shut behind him, atmosphere flooding back into the chamber, "Hello?" he called out, "Rose Quartz Facet-5 Cut-7DT, reporting as requested!" he wiped away the very last signs of his frozen tears.

The steps of the spiral staircase emerged from the wall, and he could see Pearl walking down, "Hello again!" he greeted. It was good to see her. And to know, that even if the humans he had loved weren't going to be with him again for a long time, the Gems he loved would still be there for him in this time, even if they didn't know him yet.

"Yes, hello 7DT. Her Radiance, Pink Diamond, awaits you." she said, without showing any sign of recognition, bowing to him. She turned around, and began to head back up. 

He smiled weakly, and followed her up the steps, "So, how did the survey mission go?" he asked casually, "See anything interesting?"

"Yes." she said.

"And the Rose Quartz who was with you, is she here too?" he teased.

"Um... she's... out on the moon. Picking up... rocks." Pearl said, her lying skills not very developed yet, "Look, it's _very rare_ that Pink Diamond agrees to a personal audience. And she's _very_ interested in your information. And..."

Steven stopped walking, looking at her, "And?"

Pearl looks conflicted, "...I probably shouldn't tell you." she says, "It's just... that Pink Diamond has been feeling... isolated. She would appreciate the interaction for its own benefit. She also has a very _keen_ interest in organic life. But she may wish to speak about things besides the survey mission. Please engage her fully in conversation. Please do not try to offend her, and of course, it goes without saying that you are to say nothing to any other Gems if she would, for some reason, break protocol."

"You don't have to worry, Pearl." he says, smiling.

"Right!" she begins climbing the stairs faster, her body language still showing her nervousness.

They go past the room with the floating sphere, and up to the top.

Pearl pressed the button on the door to make it open, and then bowed deep, "My radiance, Rose Quartz Facet-5 Cut-7DT."

"Hello." Steven said, smiling up at Pink Diamond. 

It... wasn't as intimidating as the first time, somehow. The image of his mom as Rose stood above him his entire young life. But Pink Diamond? As soon as he knew who she was, she had also been knocked off her pedestal. 

Pearl started elbowing him, _"Salute!"_ she whispered.

"Oh! Right. My Diamond." he did a quick diamond salute.

"Greetings." Pink Diamond said, smiling wide, "I was told you had information for me? Relating to the _humans?"_

He nodded, taking a breath to center himself. He had run this through a few different times in his head, and while he did believe honesty was the best policy... he also figured he should probably work up to it, and actually see what Pink Diamond was thinking about humans, and organic life, and the Earth in general. It might be that the decision was made over the course of months, or years, or even decades. So... best not to rush into things?

"I do! So, as you know, I emerged three days early, so my Agate had me stationed outside the Sky Spire. To keep the humans away from the construction work. And, sure enough, one came up to me, his name was Huang, and he was really nice."

"His _name?"_ she asked, eyes going wide. She lowered herself to the ground and sat down cross-legged on the floor nearby him. Steven grinned, and sat down too, leaving Pearl the only one standing, "You _talked_ with one?" 

He nodded, "I asked why the humans were going up to the sky spire to begin with, and it turns out, the construction was destroying a nearby river, and Huang and his village wanted to make them stop."

Pink Diamond turned her head slightly, "Why would they care about the river?"

"Oh! Sorry, um. They used the river a lot? They drank from it, and their animals drank from it, and they used it to keep clean, and water their crops, stuff like that?"

"Fascinating." she breathed, before coming closer, "Tell me more! What else do they do with the river?"

"Well, uh, those are the _main_ things. I guess they could swim, too? But I didn't see anyone swimming. And there was fish, and I saw them with nets, so they probably used it to catch them?"

"What do they do with the fish afterwards?"

Steven looked at her oddly, "Eat them."

"They eat _fish?"_

"They're- humans, are omnivores. They eat plants- but not all plants! Just some, and animals, and fish, and mushrooms, and all kinds of things, really. As long as it isn't toxic to them, they'll probably eat it." he rolled his eyes, "Even the toxic stuff too, sometimes, if it's only a little at a time."

"Why?"

"Because... well, there's a lot of reasons. Sometimes, its because it adds spice! Makes things that you eat taste more interesting. Other times, its to help sleep better, or to fight an infection, or uh, because they don't want to think about something that makes them sad, or mad, and some toxins make it hard to think at all."

"You know so much about them!" Pink Diamond gushed, "I- oh! Oh, Pearl, ple- I mean, show him the village we found!" she stood up, picking him up, and she leaped down the opening into the room with the sphere, the one he remembered Lapis using to watch the Earth.

"Of course, my Diamond." Pearl said, following the two of them.

"Could I show you Huang's village, after?" Steven asked, "I uh, didn't get to finish telling you what happened either."

"Oh, right of course." she set him down, "So, what did happen?"

"Well, I told him to wait at the bottom, and then I went up to talk to the Bismuths at the top of the spire. I made friends with one of them, too, a Bismuth I nicknamed Pyramid. Anyway, I told them that because the rocks were disrupting the river, the humans were angry. So, me and Pyramid talked to the other Gems, and we went down, and cleared away all the rubble that got dumped into the water."

"I see." Pink Diamond said, somewhat less interested in the story now that it was more about the Gems than the humans.

"Uh, but- you'll like this part. Huang saw that we were actually helping, and so he went back to his village, and called most of them over to the river. And then-"

"Yes?" she asked, excited.

"We all cleaned the river together!" Steven said triumphantly, "Humans and Gems, working side-by-side to make things happen faster than either could have on their own. The humans started singing, and the Gems all joined in, and afterwards, the humans promised to stop attacking the Sky Spire, and the Gems stopped dropping rock into the water. Instead, they would throw it towards an uninhabited mountain."

"That- that's wonderful!" Pink Diamond enthused, "That must have been so fun!"

"It kind of was." Steven agreed.

"My Diamond?" Both looked to Pearl, "Should I activate the viewer?"

"Oh! Right. You can explain things!" she pushed Steven forwards, even as she began watching the walls impatiently. The room suddenly vanished, replaced with a somewhat pastoral scene. A village in the middle of a forest.

Steven stood up, looking around, before looking to Pink, "Well, I'll do my best, what have you been curious about?"

"These!" Pink Diamond said, grabbing him and dragging him over to a couple chatting soundlessly. Then, the Diamond pointed at the bundle in the woman's arms, "This. What is this? A bunch of them keep them around, and feed them, but I haven't been able to figure out what they actually _do."_

Steven grinned, "That's a baby." he said, "A baby human."

Pink stared down at it, and then at its mother, "It'll grow into another human?"

Steven nods, "Yeah, it will." 

"Oh." she kept watching the couple for a few more seconds, before grabbing Steven and dragging him to another part of the village, "Okay, now, what is _this?"_

"She's working leather. Probably to make clothes." 

"Where do they get the leather from?" 

"Probably buffalo? Another type of earth animal."

"Do they eat them, too? Are they a type of fish?" 

"Well-"

Steven watched his Mom with amusement as she peppered him with question after question. It honestly reminded him a little of his time with newly un-corrupted Gems in Little Homeworld, and Peridot, in those first few weeks where she agreed to start helping them. Everything was new to her, everything about Earth, about organic life, that seemed obvious to him, was a mystery to her. But rather than writing it off, or coming up with her own explanation and moving on, she was genuinely curious.

He answered every question she asked, watching the village outside the Prime Kindergarten, and then eventually switching to Huang's village, where Steven was able to put names to faces, and answer in even greater detail.

Hours passed, like that.

***

Pink pulled him along, Pearl quickly following, as she went to examine yet another aspect of the village. "You know, uh, my Diamond," Steven began, interrupting her before she could ask another question about why, exactly, humans needed to wear shoes, "There was something I wanted to ask you about, while I had your attention." 

"Oh?" she turned to face him.

He worked his hands for a moment, and steeled himself, "...I want to try and protect the Earth as it is." he said, "The humans, the animals, the plants- they're unique. They're special. They're important. You agree with me, right?" 

Her eyes went wide, and she stared down at him with an expression of sheer shock. 

"My Diamond?" Pearl asked, rushing to her side, "My Diamond, what's wrong?"

"...You think so too?" she reached down, taking his hand in her own. 

He nodded, determined, "I... the truth is..." 

"The truth?" Pearl asked. 

"I'm from the future. Six-thousand years from now." 

"Oh." Pink Diamond said, "Did I send you?"

"I'm not actually sure who sent me." he said, "But... in the next fifteen hundred years, you decide to use your Rose Quartz disguise to try and save this planet." he said, "You do it by trying to scare off all the occupying Gems. You and the fearsome renegade Pearl." he said softly, smiling at her, "But it doesn't work. The other Diamonds begin sending more reinforcements, and soldiers to try and hunt you down. At the same time, 'Rose Quartz' begins to build her own armies. It becomes a civil war." he said, looking down.

"A lot of Gems end up hurt. Shattered. You decided to do something desperate. You faked your own shattering, with Pearl's help, choosing to live as Rose rather than Pink. But rather than demoralize the Diamonds, it just pushed them to greater extremes..." he sighed, "In the end, at the end of the civil war, you and Pearl, and... your closest friends in the rebellion, were the only Gems left capable of thought on the whole Earth. The Diamonds assumed they won, so they left the Earth alone for another four or so thousand years. But then, they came back again, with plans to make a geo-weapon capable of destroying the Earth. We- me and the Crystal Gems, managed to defuse it, and kind of... peacefully settle things with the Diamonds. But it was a hard journey to get there, and a lot could have gone wrong, and did go wrong." he finished, almost out of breath, before looking up. 

Best to leave the biggest bombshells- that she was effectively dead, and that she had produced a half-human son, for now. 

He looked into Pearl and Pink Diamond's faces, as they stared bewildered at him. 

"...That's the most ridiculous story I've ever heard." Pearl said, eventually. 

"It is kind of ridiculous, isn't it?" he admitted, smiling, "But it's true." 

Pink's expression hardened, "I- I would never _fight_ the other Diamonds." she said, "You're lying. You must be!" 

"Why would I lie?" Steven asked.

She threw up her hands, "I don't know!" she turned away from him, looking at the image of the village around them, "A civil war? A rebellion? That- that I would give up on being a Diamond, forever, to just live as a Rose Quartz with Pearl..." she stared down at Pearl, who was looking up at Pink with equally wide eyes, "The two of us, together, on the Earth, forever?" 

"Pink..." Pearl said quietly, "...you aren't..?" she walked up to Pink, and set one small delicate hand onto Pink's leg.

"Pearl." 

Steven smiled at the two of them, and began to back away quietly, leaving them their moment. 

"You really _would?"_ Pearl asked, utterly mystified, "Why?" 

"I... I'm barely a Diamond as it is." she said, close to tears, "And what we're doing to this planet- it's _wrong._ We're _hurting_ it, just to make more Gems. More things that don't grow, don't change. But being a Diamond means serving the Empire. Serving the expansion." she looks at Pearl, "And I've never been good at being a Diamond. Maybe I'll do a better job of being a Quartz." 

"And you would want me there with you?" 

"If you wanted to be." 

Pearl recoils, glancing aside, "What I want doesn't matter." 

Pink reaches out, clasping Pearl's chin, guiding her closer again, "If it was just the two of us, and I wasn't a Diamond, it _would."_

"That's not true." Steven interrupted, startling both Gems, "It matters _now,_ too." 

"You don't know what you're talking about." Pearl said, narrowing her eyes at him.

"I do, Pearl. I knew- I knew another you, in the future. The you six thousand years from now." he smiled sadly, "You're one of the most thoughtful, caring, powerful, passionate, and graceful Gems I've ever met. You've saved my life, and the lives of so many others, and you taught me so much. You're your own Gem, and what you want _absolutely_ matters. Even with other Gems around. Even if your best friend is a Diamond." 

"That- that doesn't make any sense." Pearl protested.

"None of this does." he says, grinning, "And Pink?" 

The diamond looks to him, almost afraid, "Yes?"

"You're a Diamond. Not any less than the others." he says, feeling his grin falter a little bit, "But that doesn't mean what you think it does. Or at least it doesn't have to. Diamonds can make mistakes. They can be clumsy, and desperate, and hateful, and forgetful, and irrational." she flinches with each word, eyes drifting to the floor, "...Not just you. The others too." she looks up, surprised, "Yellow and Blue and White, are all those things and more. Just as much as you were. But do you want to know something else? Diamonds can also be kind, and compassionate, and remorseful, and they can change, and they have the power to fix things- to _heal. _You _are_ a Diamond, Pink, but that doesn't mean you can't do any of those things you want to do." 

He let out a sigh of relief, having gotten a little of the weight on his shoulders off.

"...I feel so confused." Pink said sitting down on the ground, Pearl leaning against her. She looked up at him, "What were you, to me, in the future?" 

"...Family." he said, "Like Pearl, and a few others you haven't met yet." 

Pink closed her eyes, "...Then, if all of this is true, what next?" she asked, "What comes next? What plan do you have?"

"We try to convince the Diamonds to leave Earth alone." he said, "And to stop the expansion. We try to get them to look into new ways of doing things. A _sustainable_ way to create Gems without obliterating planets. And when they try to push you away or dismiss you, we keep on pushing. We keep on trying. We keep on explaining, until they understand."

"And if they just ignore me? If they decide that I can't handle the colony and they try to take things over?"

"...We rebel." he said, smiling sadly, "And if they keep trying to force our hand, we fight back. And hopefully win a lot faster, and easier, and with less violence, than before."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Steven Universe Future ended, and I predictably cried like a little baby. And now, knowing concretely what happens in SUF, I'm thinking that the version of Steven in this story is a copy from some point in between the Movie, and SUF. He's unaware of the Diamond's further efforts to redeem themselves, he never proposed to Connie, never met the Rose Quartzes that lived with the Zoomans, never started going all "pink and bloated" etc.


End file.
